The Japanese Bridge 1924

This is Claude Monet's 'The Japanese Bridge' hanging here at MoMA, painted with oil on canvas using these loose, gestural marks. I can imagine Monet in his garden, trying to pin down this explosion of light, color, and organic life. What I like about this one is how the bridge is not the only thing that matters: it’s engulfed and almost swallowed by the nature around it. The paint is applied in layers of short, broken strokes. Close up, it almost falls apart into abstraction, but then from a distance, wow, it shimmers, and the bridge appears! The surface has this incredible density and depth, the touches of green and blue weaving around these jolts of red, orange and yellow. You can see his touch, the movement of his hand. His work reminds me that painting is a conversation between artists through time, each of us trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.