Time 1965

Abdul Mati Klarwein painted this hallucinatory image called “Time” sometime during his lifetime, using what looks like oil on canvas. The swirling masses of faces and figures seem to emerge out of a cosmos of dark matter. I can imagine him layering thin glazes of paint, building up these otherworldly forms through trial and error. He was probably working intuitively, letting the painting guide him. Those rows of faces—red on one side, blue on the other—they feel like a nod to Renaissance painting, but warped and psychedelic. And that central figure with the mask and flowing beard? Is it a deity, a jester, or maybe a self-portrait? There's so much packed into this circular composition, it reminds me of visionary artists like Hilma af Klint, or even some of the Surrealists, who were all trying to tap into something beyond the everyday. Painting is like that, you know? It’s a conversation across time, where artists riff off each other, remixing ideas, and showing us new ways of seeing.