Still Life With Flowers, Fruit and Seashell 1970

Ion Pacea painted this still life with flowers, fruit, and seashell with oil on canvas, and I can imagine him working and reworking the shapes. There’s something about that brown-red ground against the dark greens and yellows that evokes the feeling of being indoors. I think Pacea must have set up the still life in his studio, and then responded to it, simplifying it to its barest forms. I see a conversation happening between him and artists like Matisse, who used simple color relationships to make objects vibrate on the canvas. Pacea wasn’t afraid to let the painting get a little “clunky.” He lets the painting be what it is—a construction of color and shape. The seashell is my favorite part, sitting on a folded napkin or maybe a tea towel. I can almost feel the coolness of the shell and the soft folds of the fabric. It’s the kind of gesture that makes you realize artists are always talking to each other, across time, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.