Mirmande (with Surrounding Hills) 1934

Curator: Mirmande (with Surrounding Hills) is the name, and a fascinating Modernist landscape by Dorrit Black from 1934 is the game. Editor: Wow, there's a certain peaceful austerity to it, isn’t there? Almost meditative with that simplified form. Curator: Black worked this oil painting with incredible sophistication, applying a palette and abstracted forms to depict the French village and setting that give it the work's name. Editor: The structures almost appear carved, with sharp shadows defining their form, what catches my attention is how the geometry feels both intentional, carefully plotted but dreamlike, with that skewed perspective. Almost cubist-inspired, right? Curator: Precisely. Black absorbed lessons from European modernism, especially cubism, but translated them into something distinctly her own, reflecting her personal connection to the landscape. Think of this one hanging near that work by Léger for example and that link feels palpable to many. Editor: You know, it also strikes me as rather theatrical. It's as if the artist has placed a stage set, with these angular buildings rising in dramatic tiers before this hazy mountainous backdrop. What do you make of the colour palette? I mean, I get a definite feeling of autumnal warmth – oranges and ochres offset beautifully against those greens. Curator: The warm tones absolutely speak of the Mediterranean, that dry light...it captures the heat of the landscape while those structured forms almost contain it. It’s an amazing synthesis really. What truly compels me is its stillness, and quiet defiance. A real lesson in feeling versus visual translation. Editor: Definitely. The stillness makes you focus on those colours and textures even more, and you appreciate how the forms coalesce without blending to offer the scene’s overall appeal. Dorrit Black found something powerful there, didn’t she? A beauty that persists long after your first viewing.