Composition with Palm Trees 1960

Curator: Welcome. Before us hangs Alfredo Chighine's "Composition with Palm Trees" at the Tate. Editor: The build-up of paint is extraordinary, thick swathes of yellows and greens that feel almost architectural. Curator: Indeed. Those yellows, for instance, evoke a sense of sun-drenched, almost aggressively cheerful, modernity. Palm trees, though abstracted, bring a suggestion of the exotic. Editor: I'm drawn to the way the material application becomes the subject. The gesture, the sweep of the brush, it all underscores the artist's process. Curator: So, we are left pondering not just an image, but its making, its cultural resonance, and even the artist's state of mind. Editor: It encourages us to consider the labor, the sheer physicality involved in creating this piece.