Decorative Panel, Woman No. 2 1910

Alberto Magnelli made this tempera on paper, Decorative Panel, Woman No. 2, and wow, what a dame. She’s kind of a cross between a fashion plate and a cartoon character. I can imagine him painting this, pushing the paint around and letting the forms emerge, maybe starting with the shapes of her enormous coat, which seems to swallow her whole. Magnelli’s got this palette of blues, yellows, reds, and purples, playing with the tension between abstraction and figuration, much like other modernists at the time. She’s all shapes and angles, and her features are so exaggerated, like in a comic strip. But that flatness also makes it feel like an icon, something ancient and powerful. It's this back and forth between then and now that makes the piece so intriguing. When you look at it what do you see? Is it yesterday or tomorrow?