Eternity 1906

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis made this evocative painting, Eternity, with a dreamy blend of tempera on paper. Look at how he’s layered blues and greens to create this otherworldly space, punctuated by tiny stars. It’s a process of building up the canvas, like building up a feeling, a memory. The texture feels almost velvety, a soft accumulation of pigments. Those winding, luminous forms, kind of like ethereal rivers, they seem to carve paths through the night, don’t they? They lead our eye around and through the painting, like a journey or a wandering thought. It reminds me of Odilon Redon, or maybe even some of Hilma af Klint’s more spiritual explorations. This piece invites us to think about the way art is always in dialogue with itself, an ongoing conversation between artists across time, where meaning is never fixed but always in flux.