University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings (Medicine), detail showing Hygieia 1907

Gustav Klimt painted this detail of Hygieia, part of the University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings. Look at the way the yellows and reds vibrate together—it's like the whole painting is shimmering! I can imagine Klimt up on a scaffold, carefully building up the layers of paint, finding his way through the patterns and forms. What was it like to work on such a huge scale? That golden snake wrapping around Hygieia's arm—it almost feels like a dance. Klimt’s mark-making here is so deliberate and delicate, but there is a feeling of uncertainty. It reminds me of the way Cy Twombly would work, building up marks that look like they might fall apart at any moment. It's a kind of organized chaos, you know? We, as painters, keep looking at each other's work across time, and then our moves start to mingle. It all feeds into this river of making, this conversation. Painting is embodied expression. It is ambiguous and uncertain, always open to multiple interpretations.