White Vase 1996

Here's Avigdor Arikha's painting of a white vase. It's got that immediate, seen-in-a-glance quality, like a quick impression rendered in neutral tones. I imagine Arikha setting up this still life, squinting to really see it, and then capturing it all in one go. I can feel the artist's curiosity as he paints with close observation, his eye darting back and forth, trying to get the relationships right. Look how he's handled the grey shadow beneath the vase, and how the colour shifts ever so slightly. It's all about tone, how the light falls, and the subtle shifts in the surfaces. This work feels deeply connected to other painters throughout history who have explored the quiet beauty of everyday objects. Like Morandi, Arikha finds poetry in the mundane. He shows us that the act of looking closely can reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary. That’s something to strive for, as an artist and as a person.