Vase with flowers 1935

Here’s a painting of a vase with flowers by Sirak Skitnik, and it's a study in how colors argue. The palette's restrained, mostly blues and grays, but then bam!—this acidic yellow vase pops right out. It's all about the materiality. The paint isn't trying to hide; it's thick, present. You can see the marks, the swipes of the brush. Look closely at the background, see how those jagged strokes of blues and purples create a kind of visual tension. It almost vibrates, right? It's not just a backdrop; it's alive, pushing against the flowers. Then there's the vase, all murky and gold, weighing down the lightness of the flowers. Skitnik reminds me a little of early Beckmann, in that there's a rawness, an honesty to the brushwork. These artists aren't trying to pretty things up. They're after something deeper, something real. It’s the imperfection that makes it human.