Fruits and vegetables 1934

Curator: Look at this riot of color, our listeners. "Fruits and Vegetables," painted in 1934 by Martiros Sarian. A pure delight, isn't it? Editor: Yes, delightful. I immediately notice the flattening of the picture plane, a very deliberate choice to deny deep space. It forces the viewer to confront the materiality of paint, color, and shape rather than succumb to illusionism. Curator: Right? It’s as though Sarian's hand wanted to hug these forms into existence. These pumpkins aren't just pumpkins, they are little universes humming with sunshine! The oranges bursting, they speak of warm childhood memories when you are free and time has no weight, at least for me. I bet there were pumpkins on my grandparents' kitchen table which looked like those pumpkins. Editor: An emotional response, yes, but consider the formal arrangement: The strong diagonals created by the elongated squash on the left and the implicit line suggested by the arrangement of the scattered fruit draw the eye through a carefully calibrated space. Note how Sarian juxtaposes complementary color relationships—blues and oranges, greens and reds, to intensify the visual experience, no? Curator: Oh definitely! It makes everything pop like a summer blockbuster. Also, those tiny almond-shaped seeds…scattered like wishes! Sarian's vision of home it is a poem told in color and it makes my imagination run wild. The work just embodies naive art through its simple approach to complex compositions and through the color composition. I wonder where Sarian was dreaming when he was drawing this piece. Editor: Indeed. His approach departs significantly from strict realism. See, he’s after something deeper: a distillation of form to its most essential elements. It's less about mimicking reality and more about conveying an idealized version through abstract, geometric shapes and carefully curated colors. He certainly succeeds to show to any random individual his true talent through the elements described. Curator: Beautifully said! So, perhaps a recipe for a visual feast, where even the most familiar ingredients - the apples, pears - transforms to something entirely unexpected. A reminder, friends, that sometimes the tastiest moments in art is exactly when you simply surrender to color and to the joy in the mundane objects in life. Editor: Precisely, an art which requires a commitment to close observation and formal decoding of an artwork for profound appreciation. This commitment unlocks access to dimensions for appreciation not possible.