Scherzo (Sonata of the Pyramids) 1909

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis made 'Scherzo' with paint on cardboard; you can see the surface coming through. It’s as if he’s built this whole world, this 'Sonata of the Pyramids', with the ochre of the cardboard itself. The painting feels airy and ethereal, and that's down to the layering of thin washes of color. There's a real sense of the artist feeling his way through the process. I find myself drawn to the little houses down below, the way they're repeated, almost childlike, with their tiny, tentative brushstrokes. You can sense the joy in the gesture, the sheer pleasure of painting. The longer I look, the more Ciurlionis reminds me of Hilma af Klint, another artist who embraced abstraction to explore spiritual ideas. Both were pioneers, really, reaching beyond the visible world to paint something else entirely. For me, art is about that journey, the space between what we know and what we can imagine.