Reclining Female 1961

Oronzo Vito Gasparo painted this Reclining Female in 1941. Look at the way the colors shift, and consider the act of painting itself—the back and forth, the adding and subtracting, the trial and error. Imagine Gasparo as he created this piece, maybe influenced by the modern art movements of his time like Cubism or Futurism. What was he thinking as he outlined the female figure, her gaze meeting ours with such directness? The texture and the surface are so interesting here; you can almost feel the canvas beneath your fingertips. I like the way Gasparo painted her figure, so white, so ghostly and maybe this painting relates to others from the period, all of the artists in dialogue through line, brushstroke and vision. Artists are always in conversation, exchanging ideas across time and space, sparking new ways of seeing. Painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for endless interpretations.