Creation of the World VII 1906

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis made this painting, Creation of the World VII, sometime between 1905 and 1906 using tempera on cardboard. It's like a memory of a place, or maybe the feeling of being somewhere totally new. I find myself focusing on the application of the paint, so dry and chalky, in thin vertical strokes. It's not about trying to trick you into seeing something real; instead, it’s about the surface and the action of painting itself. I am drawn to the thin vertical mark-making on the left-hand side of the painting, a series of ochre strokes that fade into each other. These repeated marks create a rhythm, almost like musical notes on a page. Ciurlionis was a composer as well as a painter, and you can almost hear the music in this work. Ciurlionis's work reminds me of Hilma af Klint, another artist who was exploring spiritual themes in her work around the same time. Both artists were interested in the unseen forces that shape our world, and they both used abstract forms to express these ideas. Ultimately, Ciurlionis’ paintings feel like a beginning, or perhaps a question.