Girl 1913

Tadeusz Makowski made this painting called 'Girl' with oil on canvas. The tones are all quite close together here, aren’t they? Browns, creams, ochres. The painting reminds me that even a limited palette offers plenty of room to play. There's this tension between the flat planes and the implied volume of the figure. The paint is applied in these directional strokes, like he's sculpting the form out of pigment. See how the light seems to catch on the high points of her chest and face? I like how a few dark lines define the edges, yet there's a softness, too, created by the blending of tones. It’s not photo-real but it doesn’t need to be, does it? Looking at this, I am reminded of Cézanne's use of geometric forms to depict figures. Both artists share a way of seeing the world, embracing ambiguity. It’s about process, not product, I guess.