Maternity 1935

This is José de Almada-Negreiros's “Maternity,” and it's an image built from simple forms, but it’s anything but simple. The way Almada-Negreiros layers those blues, yellows and browns to create this mother and child is incredible. Look at the texture – he’s not hiding the brushstrokes, is he? You can almost feel the oil paint, thick in some places, thin in others. It's a constructed reality, as much about the making as the subject itself. I’m particularly drawn to how the mother’s head scarf drapes so realistically, yet the rest of the image is so stylised. There’s a conversation happening here between observation and imagination. It brings Picasso to mind, a similar simplification of form and embrace of ambiguity. It reminds us that art is always a dialogue. There's no one right answer and that's the joy of it, right?