Les fleurs 2019

Eckart Hahn made this painting called 'Les Fleurs' with what looks like oil or acrylic and a lot of layering. The yellow background is a bit crazed, like it's been distressed, while the birds are so smooth. The contrast makes me wonder about how we see beauty, and what we choose to preserve. Then there's that dark circle filled with flowers, it looks like an eye, watching us, or maybe it's a portal, like Alice stepping through the looking glass. Down at the bottom, those two birds seem to be caught in a loop. Are they fighting, or embracing? It's so ambiguous, like de Kooning's women, or maybe even Magritte's strange juxtapositions. Hahn isn't giving us any easy answers. Art doesn't need to resolve everything, sometimes it's more interesting to just let the questions hang in the air.