Antibes 1961

Abidin Dino made this painting, Antibes, with paint, but I don't know when. Look at how he's really working with the push and pull of dark and light to build up this form, one that feels kind of architectural, maybe even like a stage set. The material quality here is everything, right? The way the dark paint seems to almost dissolve around the edges of the white structure, creating this hazy effect. It's like Dino is using the paint itself to create a sense of atmosphere, maybe even a little bit of mystery. If you look closely at the upper left corner, where the white form kind of stutters, you can almost see the ghost of previous marks, like Dino was feeling his way through the painting, letting the process guide him. This reminds me a bit of some of Joan Mitchell’s more abstract landscapes, where the paint seems to embody the landscape itself. It just goes to show how painting is always in conversation with itself.