There’s a gallery I adore: the Kimbell in Fort Worth. A small but wide-ranging collection, it is a joy to visit. I never emerge without my soul uplifted, my eyes open, my imagination buzzing, my existence fully alive.
Beside one of the artist’s more recognisable works hangs this one.
Said to be inspired by the Paris skyline view from his garret in Montparnasse at the time of the First World War, this work represents a transitional form between the painter’s more conventional landscapes and his later, iconic, wildly unconventional abstracts.
Not representational, nor yet so bleakly abstract, this painting sings to me. It is full of harmony and grace, elegance and promise.
It also bothers me a little. I think it must have been hung upside down, because those semicircular elements must surely be arches or domes, and there are many to be seen in Paris, but there is the signature of the artist at the bottom centre, and if his signature is right way up, then so too must the painting be.
What paintings do you adore?
Britni
