Water Lilies 1908

Curator: Welcome to this serene gallery space, where we find ourselves before Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies,” an oil painting created in 1908. Editor: There’s something immediately calming about the chromatic range he’s using. The light seems to dissolve the forms, creating a dreamlike stillness. Curator: Monet's paintings are a product of not just personal expression, but of the industrial advancements of the 19th century. Mass production of paints, for instance, allowed artists to capture these fleeting impressions en plein air, leading to Impressionism as a movement, so this freedom of brushstrokes is only there because of economic factors. Editor: Certainly, but look at the layering of color; how light interplays across the surface of the water! The optical mixing achieved with separate, distinct strokes of paint, not blended, contributes to the vibration that the Impressionists so brilliantly mastered, evoking such an authentic image through that careful compositional calculation. Curator: I find myself thinking about Monet’s later years and his dedication to his Giverny gardens. The labor that went into creating that landscape. The art that happened outside the canvas in the landscape work is often disregarded but an integral part of the work on the canvas. It speaks volumes about class and ownership doesn’t it? He became a consumer who needed this in order to create. Editor: It's difficult to ignore the almost meditative rhythm within the canvas. A dance of blues, greens, and yellows that create an experience. But that experience is created through careful observation and an incredible level of detail! It gives me this really intense, harmonious visual experience, as it is both representational and completely abstract. Curator: And so his obsession with replicating water lilies can be seen as an exploration into a capitalist mindset, trying to reproduce nature into a commodity of the canvas and therefore the studio! Editor: Maybe, but those lilies offer us this sense of infinity, an eternal reflection. The pure interplay of light and colour! The way Monet is handling it, I'd say this is definitely more than meets the eye. Curator: True enough, his paintings provide an insight into more than one topic to unpack. Editor: Agreed! Each approach only enriching our encounter and perception.