Garden of Kama 1914

Byam Shaw made this Garden of Kama, and it feels like an illustration, really neatly painted. The lines are super precise, almost like he’s stenciling in the shapes, and the colors are flat, no real blending or shading. I’m drawn to how the flatness makes everything feel symbolic. The woman, the peacocks, the body on the floor—they’re all staged, right? It makes me think about how we create these perfect little worlds in art, freezing a moment, and that gesture of the hand, just there, it’s like she's stopping time. The way the image is organized, it’s all about design, how those colors pop against the black background. This painting has a similar vibe to some of Gustav Klimt’s more decorative pieces, the way he flattens space and uses pattern to create these intense, almost hallucinatory images. Both artists tap into this dreamlike state, where beauty and violence get all mixed up. It’s not just about what you see but about feeling your way through it.