Interior 1914

Othon Friesz painted this Interior, we don't know exactly when, probably with oils. What I love about Friesz's approach is his commitment to the process of painting itself. Look at how he's built up the layers, especially in the walls and the floor, it’s all warm and inviting. It’s like he's inviting you into this intimate space, a room filled with soft furnishings and fleeting figures in doorways. Check out how the objects in the foreground, the table and the chairs, are rendered with a kind of rough, almost crude texture. The paint is thick here, alive with the energy of the artist's touch. Notice how he's used these dark, almost black lines to define the forms? Friesz's work always makes me think of Bonnard; both had a similar way of making painting about feeling your way through a space, rather than just describing it. They remind us that art is an ongoing conversation. The work is ambiguous, and that is how the conversation can continue.