Old Block of Houses 1958

Carlos Botelho made this painting, Old Block of Houses, with lots of lovely reds and some stand-out blues and greens. Just imagine him working on it, layering the paint to build up a visual record of thought. It’s like he's seeing the world as blocks, not just houses, but blocks of color, blocks of space. I can almost feel the way Botelho loaded his brush and pressed it onto the canvas, how he felt the pull of his arm. The red is so alive, it's like the city's heartbeat. Then, these window shapes, just rectangles of white and blue. It's as if he's asking, "What do we see when we look at a building? What do we really see?" It puts me in mind of other painters, like Morandi and his bottles, reducing everything to simple forms. Painting becomes a kind of embodied thinking, each touch of the brush resonating with feeling, and Botelho lets us feel what he feels. Artists create these paintings and then we riff on them, across time. It's one big conversation!