Floral Still Life 1913

Maurice Prendergast made this intimate oil painting, now held in a private collection, with small brushstrokes of saturated color and a thick impasto. Can you imagine him dabbing the paint onto the canvas, building up layers of luminous color to create the form? I feel the energy, and maybe even the struggle, he must have experienced to translate the transient beauty of flowers into something permanent. There's a tension between representation and abstraction: the flowers are recognizable, yet simplified into flattened shapes and bold colors. He painted with such joy! I admire the way he allows the materiality of the paint to be visible. The green vase grounds the composition, but the lively chaos of the flowers threatens to spill over the edges. The surface has a kind of all-over quality, a hallmark of modern painting. I bet Prendergast looked at the impressionists, as well as artists like Bonnard, and Vuillard. Artists are constantly learning from one another, across time. Like a game of telephone, ideas are passed down and transformed, generation after generation.