Il s’agit sans doute d’Azraël 1967

Léonor Fini made this ambiguous painting, "Il s’agit sans doute d’Azraël," with oils, and the colours are like a faded memory, mostly pale shades of white and grey, with that single pop of red. It’s very dreamlike, and feels like she built it up in layers. The surface of the painting is smooth, and the figures have soft edges, like they’re emerging from the canvas. But when you look closer, you can see the brushstrokes, especially in the background. It’s like Fini is revealing the process, inviting us to see how the image came to be. I'm drawn to the way the figure on the right seems to dissolve into the background. It’s as if she is both present and disappearing, solid and ethereal. Fini reminds me a little of Paula Rego, both artists conjuring up a world of strange femininity. It’s a reminder that art is a conversation, artists speaking to each other across time and space, exploring what it means to be human.