Innocence of Attraction 2020

Michael Cheval made this painting, "Innocence of Attraction", with paint, though when is anyone’s guess. There's a kind of dreamlike quality in how he builds up the forms with these little circular marks in red, like the whole world is made of cells, or maybe musical notes. The surface has this almost velvety texture, especially in the red areas. It’s as if Cheval is building up layers of meaning, not just color. Look at the way the red circles become more sparse as they move towards the figure with the violin. That area feels thinner, more transparent, like the music is dissolving the world around it. Cheval has an illustrative style but some artists with a similar sense of whimsy are Remedios Varo, or Leonora Carrington. This painting it’s not about answers, but about embracing the beautiful, strange questions that art can pose.