Abundance 1923

Tadeusz Makowski made 'Abundance' with what looks like oil on canvas. I can only imagine the journey he went on, layering up the paints, trying and trying again to get it just so. The texture of the skin against the fruit is compelling, and the work feels very physical. There is something odd about the painting. It feels like an awkward teenager of a painting, stumbling around between figuration and something a little more free. I look at this strange painting and think about the artists Makowski would have seen. I wonder, too, about his own process, his own stumbles, his own desire to work through something unresolved. What was he thinking when he painted this peculiar, tender picture? Painters learn from other painters, we steal, borrow and are in an ongoing conversation, across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. We work through our problems together.