Frutas 1968

Aldemir Martins made this painting called 'Frutas', but no one seems to know exactly when! What strikes me is how flat everything is, and so, so vibrant. It's not trying to be real, it's being paint, you know? Look at the blue bowl – it's just this solid block of color, but it holds all this fruit, rendered with the same kind of playful simplicity. The bananas have this lovely thinness, like quick yellow sketches against the background. The artist isn’t trying to trick you into thinking you can grab a banana. It's more like he's showing you the *idea* of a banana, or a memory of one. It makes me think of Matisse and his cut-outs, that same joy in reducing things down to their essence. There's a whole conversation going on between artists across time, about what it means to see and to represent the world, and Martins has definitely joined in. It's all about embracing the ambiguity and letting the colors sing.