Shop Fair Old Torun 1973

Petros Malayan painted this lively scene of the Old Town Market in Torun using oil on canvas. Malayan lays down these colours, almost like tiles, in a kind of mosaic process. What I really like is the way the paint is applied, the density and drag of the pigment across the canvas. Look at the roofs, how each has its own texture and the colors seem to vibrate off one another. In the lower corner there's this great red tower with an orange tiled roof, and you can see each individual tile made with an intentional little stroke. It’s the kind of mark that feels almost playful, and it reminds me of the way Joan Miró or even Paul Klee would use a simplified visual language to evoke a mood or feeling. There’s a sense of joy in this painting, a celebration of the everyday, but it's also something mysterious, open to different interpretations.