Composition 1947

Wols made this painting with oil, using red, yellow, black, and a dash of teal, pulling and pushing the pigment to map out a site of inquiry. There’s something so raw and unfiltered about this painting, a quality I really appreciate in art. You sense Wols grappling with the unknown, searching for form in a sea of abstraction. Just think of the vulnerability it takes to lay yourself bare on canvas like that! I can imagine him, sleeves rolled up, lost in concentration as he makes a series of intuitive moves. The drips and splatters aren’t mistakes, they are traces of his process. It is as if each gesture is a thought, each color a feeling. We, as artists, are all magpies, borrowing and transforming what we find interesting and meaningful. What an exciting prospect - to continue the conversation, to add our voices to the mix! Painting is never a dead language.