An island 1939

Ivan Generalic painted ‘An island’, but I don’t know when, and I don’t know with what; maybe oil on glass? I love how the artist rendered the village with those simplified shapes, as if the houses are cardboard cut-outs. I wonder what it was like to create this piece. Maybe the artist was trying to create a sense of order out of the apparent chaos of lived experience? Maybe he was trying to recall an experience of the everyday, of a life lived on an island? I’m thinking about the way the dark, stormy sky contrasts with the neat, tidy village and the figures busy at work. The painting gives a feeling of industrious activity. I’m thinking of Brueghel, but with a unique touch, a naïve approach. It’s not technically ‘correct’ per se, but it communicates something essential about painting and picture-making, and a specific place, maybe a childhood memory, and a culture. Artists are always talking to each other across time! It’s one big conversation. And hopefully, it’s open-ended, with no right or wrong answers, just ways of seeing and feeling.