Beurdinu 1961

Maurice Esteve made Beurdinu with oil on canvas, and what strikes me most is its commitment to shape and colour as a process. The materiality of the piece invites you in. Look closely, and you can see the ways the paint has been built up, layer upon layer. It’s neither totally transparent or opaque, but somewhere deliciously in between. There's a gorgeous balance between the intuitive mark and the deliberate construction. Take that large, rounded form in the bottom right. Notice how the artist has used different tones of blue to give it volume and weight, but then left the edges soft and undefined, allowing it to merge with the surrounding space. It is almost as if Esteve is creating a world where colours and shapes are in constant conversation. Beurdinu, with its lively shapes and colours, reminds me a little of the work of Joan Miró, who was also interested in the interplay between abstraction and figuration. Like Miró, Esteve embraces ambiguity, inviting us to find our own meanings and associations within the work.