Pregnant woman 1948

This is Yiannis Moralis's painting of a pregnant woman – mysterious, full of form, and painted with serious intent. I'm thinking about the artist as he builds this painting, layer by layer, tone by tone, and how the woman gradually emerges. Her form, caught in a moment of quiet contemplation, is beautifully present. The artist captures the feeling of pregnancy, the weight, the presence of the body, and the psychological space of the woman’s experience. I like how the artist depicts her wearing a blue robe-like dress, and the way her hand gently rests on her stomach, holding the apple. There's a relationship here between this painting and the wider world of figuration - it feels like an important painting, both of its time and speaking to the future. It's part of an ongoing conversation across the ages about what it means to be a human in paint. The work embraces uncertainty, so we can project our own feelings, our own interpretation, and make our own meaning from the experience of looking.