Fishes 2010

Branko Bačanović made this artwork, Fishes, using black ink and paint, on a 70 x 100 cm surface. The fish here hovers between playful image and existential form. Look closely, and you can see the artist's hand moving spontaneously, drawing and redrawing, almost as if in conversation with the blank surface. I wonder, was Bačanović thinking about the texture and shape of the fish? Its movements? I can almost feel his hand pushing and pulling, finding a balance between control and letting go. That thick black outline is interesting, isn’t it? It gives the fish a sense of weight, anchoring it to the surface, while the fluid, ghostly white background seems to want to set it free. There's a tension between control and chance, intention and accident, that makes the image so alive. Painting is all about embracing that kind of ambiguity, it’s an ongoing dialogue across time, inspiring one another's creativity and meaning.