Antibes, Evening 1914

Paul Signac painted ‘Antibes, Evening’ with oil on canvas, capturing a scene in the South of France with this mesmerising, stippled surface. Signac was a master of pointillism, and it’s like he’s built this whole world, one tiny dot at a time. It’s not just about technique, though. Look at how he uses complementary colours to create light and shadow, the way the pinks and greens dance together. You can almost feel the warmth of the evening sun. The whole thing shimmers. I mean, get close and look at any square inch of this surface. This way of painting is all about the materiality, the act of applying pigment to a surface. It’s a close cousin of Seurat, but somehow more passionate, more interested in the way colour constructs an image. Signac invites us to see how paintings are made, not just what they depict. It’s an exchange of ideas, across time.