Flowers from Chamlych 1910

Martiros Sarian made this painting of Flowers from Chamlych, using oil on canvas, but we don’t know exactly when. The paint handling is pretty direct, and the colors feel like they’ve been pulled straight from his imagination. It's like he's not just showing us flowers, but also how he feels about them. Check out how the colors push and pull – the reds and yellows jump out, while the blues kind of hang back. The surface is alive; it’s not just flat color, you can see how each brushstroke builds up. In the lower left, there’s this cluster of dark, leafy shapes, each outlined with a kind of nervous energy that leads your eye right back into the bloom of the bouquet. Sarian reminds me a bit of Milton Avery, in that both really knew how to balance observation and a totally bonkers personal vision. Anyway, this painting reminds us that seeing isn't just about what's there, but about how we make sense of it all.