Palm Palisades 1947

Graham Sutherland made this painting, Palm Palisades, using oil paint, at some point in his career, we don’t have a date for it. The sharp lines and intense colour gives a feeling of something both inviting, and slightly dangerous, maybe like the excitement of going on holiday somewhere new? Sutherland is really unafraid in his use of pure colour, the bright orange-red is flattened and vivid, a backdrop for strange plant-like forms. Look at how the white ‘palisades’ are edged with a thin grey line, a line that is both descriptive and abstract, both defining the form and flattening the space. I love the way this strange combination of spiky, organic shapes sit on a kind of table-like form. It makes me think of Leger, but with a botanical twist. With Sutherland, as with all good paintings, the more you look, the more you see. The conversation continues.