Fourth Bucolic: Pollion 1955

Jacques Villon made this, Fourth Bucolic: Pollion, with a soft palette of pastel hues and broken lines. You can see the ghost of forms emerging, dissolving into the light-infused surface. I feel like Villon is almost flirting with abstraction. It is like the moment when the thing you are looking at begins to fall apart; the moment just before you’re not quite sure what you’re seeing anymore. You can see Villon’s struggle here, caught between representation and something else – maybe pure color, or pure feeling. The artist's hand, moving and searching. This reminds me of how painters throughout time have explored this tension, from Turner's swirling fogs to the fractured forms of the Cubists. Painting is just one big conversation between artists and their materials, as each generation responds to the challenges and possibilities of their moment. This is where the fun begins!