Angels and sirens 1918

Tsuguharu Foujita made this painting, Angels and Sirens, with oil on canvas. Look how Foujita sets up a space that’s decorative but with these bodies floating around. It’s like he’s saying, “I can do whatever I want!” The colours are really important; they’re not the kind that sit back, but neither are they super saturated. There’s a kind of middle zone. The gold is this flat plane that doesn’t recede. It's very aware of its surface, and in a way, it makes the whole thing aware of its surface. I'm looking at this brown line that goes around one of the figures. It flattens her out and makes her decorative. Then there’s the blue, which seems to bleed into this gold; these things are pushing each other. Gustav Klimt might be a touchstone here, but Foujita feels less precious. It’s looser and the colors are more like what a normal person would use! Making art is like having a conversation between artists through time. And like any conversation, there are no rules!