Malwa 1950 - 1955

Here's 'Malwa' by Victor Vasarely, a painting built from solid blocks of ultramarine blue, black, and white. I can imagine Vasarely starting with that blue, carefully laying down this ground, like he's setting a stage. Those blacks and that white: they're not just shapes, they're like thoughts taking form, pushing and pulling against each other, carving out space. The white square feels like the keystone of a doorway or portal, and the black is the frame around it. It reminds me of the Bauhaus, and Albers' Homage to the Square. But painting doesn’t exist in a vacuum, right? We all pick up the baton from each other, generation after generation, adding our own mark. Paintings can be puzzles, but they can also be mirrors, reflecting our own ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling, back at us.