Passage 1913

Giorgio Morandi painted this landscape, Passage, with oil on canvas. I wonder if he returned to this place again and again, maybe at different times of day, or seasons? There’s something really special about the way he’s handled the paint, not fussing too much about detail, but getting down the essence of the place. The blues and greens are dashed on, alive and vibrating, but then those white planes of the road – they just stop you in your tracks. It’s like the painting is catching its breath. Morandi was so good at seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. I often think that he would agree with Agnes Martin, who believed that the value of art rests on inspiration, and how inspiration comes to us through meditation and a deep, profound happiness.