Oak 1934

Wladyslaw Strzeminski painted "Oak" with what looks like oils and a steady hand, creating these biomorphic shapes. I can almost feel him, trying to push these forms together, coaxing a sense of rhythm. I love how the black lines dance around the edges of the forms, sometimes thick, sometimes thin, giving the whole composition a sense of movement, like the leaves are swaying in the breeze. The colors are muted, warm earthy tones; burnt orange, yellow, cream, and the dark green is like a shadow, or a memory of a deeper forest. There's something so satisfying about the way the colors overlap and interact, the way the lines contain and release. It reminds me of Miro, and the way he simplified nature into these playful, abstract shapes. But Strzeminski has his own thing going on. He invites us to look closer, to find our own meaning in the spaces between the lines, in the harmony of color and form. He’s in conversation with us, and with all the painters who came before him.