The goat 1904

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis made The Goat with pastel, and what hits me first is how the mark-making, that soft, chalky surface, turns the scene into something not quite real. It’s a dreamscape, really. And talking about the dreamy quality, check out the texture – how the pastel creates this soft, almost hazy effect. The colours, they're not quite naturalistic, are they? They're heightened, like a memory or a feeling, a little melancholic. It looks like he’s smudging the pastel with his fingers. The materiality becomes part of the message, that the world we see here is mediated through touch. Take a closer look at the goat itself. The way it emerges from the darkness, like a strange apparition. And those horns, reaching up towards the sky, as though they're antennae picking up signals from another dimension. Ciurlionis reminds us that art is a conversation, a back-and-forth, open to endless interpretation.