Study of Flowers 1930

This is Olga Boznanska’s 'Study of Flowers', painted with oils, though we don’t know when. What strikes me is how Boznanska fearlessly throws down these dark strokes of color, almost muddy in their depth. The crimson mass of the flowers kind of hovers, right? Looking closer, the brown background feels like it's been scrubbed and layered, a real push-and-pull that creates this sense of depth. The blooms are all impulsive daubs and stabs of paint and yet they create this unified form. Boznanska's not after botanical accuracy, more after a feeling, an emotion. Look at the bottom, those ghostly green strokes. Are they leaves? Stems? She isn't telling, and I'm not sure she knew either. That kind of ambiguity reminds me of someone like Manet, where the brushstrokes become more about the act of painting than the subject itself. Art is a conversation across time and these flowers are a reminder that the conversation keeps evolving.