The feast with barrel organist Datiko Zemeli 1906

This canvas of barrel organist Datiko Zemeli and his party, was cooked up by Niko Pirosmani at a time we don't exactly know. I like to think of Pirosmani grabbing whatever materials were at hand and just letting this scene unfold. There's something almost dreamlike about the flatness of the figures and the table set with food—like a memory or a story being told from a distance. Pirosmani's characters feel both present and removed. I imagine Pirosmani working intuitively, adding layer upon layer, adjusting the composition as he went along—decisions made on the fly with a real sense of urgency. The men in black are raising their hands. Are they drunk? Are they hailing a taxi? Maybe this vision connects with his other paintings of Georgian life and culture, a kind of folk expressionism that feels timeless and deeply personal. It makes you feel that painters are like time travelers trading notes across centuries.