Giorgio Morandi - Still Life - 1920 - 50 x 52 cm - oil on canvas

Giorgio Morandi - Still Life - 1958-oil - 36 x 41 cm - oil on canvas

Morandi’s path is a wonderful study of searching for the essential through restriction of the subject matter.  I admire his discipline and the sophistication of his mature work.

Like most of us, his early work was focused on developing figurative skills.  Now when he began conveying the essence of the subject matter is difficult to say and of course it happens over time and study.  He was well educated in the wonderful considerations in modern painting, and connected to seeking the prime in things.

Here we have two still life paintings thirty eight years apart, which clearly shows his evolution through reduction.  Morandi’s focus in his 1920 Still Life (which has a Cezanne influence) was depiction.  This is perfectly fine and time honoured.  He has allowed some distortion but representing the objects is the intent.  We take in the objects, we see but we don’t feel their relationships.

In his 1958 painting his considerations are very different.  We  instantly connect or “feel” the relationships of the objects.  Why is that?  I’m not going to impose my analysis on you.  I would rather you feel the painting, as I do, and permit yourself time to embrace Morandi’s sensitivity.  What is important to know is that Morandi’s understood “primitivism” which is the connection to our prime.

A very sophisticated consideration and I find It truly wonderful how the connection deepens each time I visit his mature paintings. .