Proust: Albertine disparue 1994

Maria Bozoky made Proust: Albertine disparue using watercolor, and the way she applied it, it's like she's chasing a feeling more than a perfect likeness. Look at how the watery blues of the sea bleed into the figure of Albertine. It's all about the gesture, the quickness of the hand. The paint is thin, almost transparent, letting the white of the paper peek through, which gives it this light, airy quality. See the brushstrokes around her sailor shirt? They're so direct, so un-fussed. It's like Bozoky is saying, "Here's the essence, the bare minimum to conjure a person." The whole thing reminds me a bit of Raoul Dufy. Not in the details, but in that shared love for capturing the fleeting, ephemeral quality of a moment. Both artists see painting as an open-ended question, not a closed statement.