Texas An Open Door 1995

Don Ivan Punchatz offered this painting of an open door onto Texas sometime in the late twentieth century, in a smooth, airbrushed style, probably using acrylics. The colours are luminous and carefully blended – the kind of colour that almost feels like a digital rendering, even though it was done by hand. Look closely, and you will notice the subtle gradations from the deep blue of the night sky to the pale yellows and pinks of the sunrise over the water. The stars and crescent moon give the composition a dreamlike, surreal quality, like a stage set. The overall effect is both inviting and a little unsettling. Punchatz made a career as an illustrator, and I see this as a conversation with artists like Magritte, whose surreal imagery shares a similar interest in the uncanny juxtaposition of familiar objects and dreamlike spaces. Ultimately, art is about opening doors to different ways of seeing and experiencing the world, and Punchatz does just that.