Africa 1981

Tihamer Gyarmathy's "Africa" is alive with blues, yellows, and whites, built up with such subtle textures, it's like a mirage on canvas. I can almost feel the artist in the act of painting, layering color upon color, scraping back, and adding more – a real dance between intention and accident. I wonder, was he thinking about the vast landscapes, the heat, the light when he made this? There’s a delicate grid that fights against the wash of color, almost like a screen or a filter between us and the scene. It reminds me of Agnes Martin, but with a yearning toward figuration. Look at that small yellow circle in the upper right. A sun? A moon? It's so unassuming, yet it anchors the whole piece. Painting, at its best, lets us share not just a picture, but a feeling, a question, an ongoing conversation.