How to Read a Painting, or My Personal W.T.F

  1. WHAT FOR
    The subject matters, but it’s not fundamental. It’s the idea, the hint, the inspiration—“memories arrested in space.”
  2. TIMING
    It is crucial to pay attention to the historical context. For instance, it’s difficult to understand Malevich’s Black Square without looking back at the Russian avant-garde ideas of 1915: “I envisaged the revolution as having no colour… Anarchy is coloured black.”
  3. FASCINATION
    Open your mind to the unknown. Turn on your imagination. Put on the artist’s glasses, or try to find a link—your intrinsic affirmation of what you feel.

Here is a wonderful example: “Woman with Sunflowers” by Tania Parchouto. A black-and-white inverted negative, it attempts to return to the basics—rock paintings, children’s drawings. The layering of textures and colors, the interplay of black with tiny islands of high-pitched blues and pinks, creates a captivating experience. The work is fully imbued with symbolic meanings.