As duas Igrejas (Itanhaém) 1940

Anita Malfatti made this landscape painting, As duas Igrejas (Itanhaém), with oil on canvas. The ochre sky melts into the green field, and I can imagine her outside, squinting at the sun and trying to capture the colours and shapes of the land. Her brushstrokes seem to flutter and coalesce, like the touch of a memory or a dream. The two churches in the background sit calmly on the land. It’s a striking composition because there is a figure in the foreground, maybe a local, carrying a load of sticks. I wonder what she was thinking as she painted this, what thoughts and sensations crossed her mind. Maybe she was inspired by the work of Vincent van Gogh. There’s a similar vibrancy and a subjective response to a place. Artists are always in conversation with each other, whether they know it or not. It’s like a big, messy, beautiful conversation that spans centuries, and we’re all invited to listen in.