Sur La Terrasse 1945

André Lhote made this painting "Sur La Terrasse" with oil on canvas and, wow, does it zing! Look how Lhote builds up this scene with planes of color and how he doesn't fuss too much about smoothing things over. The paint is applied with clear, separate brushstrokes. The surface has a kind of raw, honest quality. It's like he's inviting us to witness the act of painting itself. Take that little stack of red, yellow, and pink stripes that suggest a chair. Now, what makes this painting really sing is the way Lhote creates this dialogue between abstraction and representation. He's clearly referencing cubism, but he is also talking to Matisse, who used flat areas of color in his paintings. It’s all about seeing how artists borrow and build upon each other's ideas across time, creating this ongoing conversation through their work.