Application 1962

Karlo Zvirynsky made this artwork called 'Application' at some point in his life. It looks like it’s made from paper, or maybe painted paper, with a collection of shapes that feels both random and intentional. I can imagine Zvirynsky shuffling around scraps of paper, trying different colours. What happens if I place this red shape next to the blue, what does that do? It feels like collage, but also like painting, thinking about positive and negative space, and the push and pull of colour relationships. There's this fantastic dark shape that seems to anchor the whole thing, but then your eye keeps moving around, trying to make sense of the puzzle. Artists like Zvirynsky are so important because they remind us that painting doesn’t have to be one thing. It can be playful, experimental, and a little bit messy, like a conversation between colours and shapes that never really ends. It's like he's saying, let's not be too serious, let's just see what happens when we put things together.