SKELETON

MITSUKO MIWA

GALERIE GRETA MEERT, RUE DU CANAL 13
BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 29 - APRIL 28, 2024








Rue du Canal
through the large windows
on the ground floor
I see these three paintings

I'm attracted by their colours
with a pleasure similar
to the one I feel in Italy
in front of luxury shop windows
and their delightful combinations of colours 

The dominant 
is a light green-yellow 
with bluish effects
on which a dark brown appears
with highlights 
of translucent caramel varnish







The gallery makes the link with 
Magritte's colours
but I remain in Italy

In the background
the calm of a High Renaissance
landscape

against which stands
an antique piece of furniture 
with three shelves
with no back panel

In my mind this piece of furniture
is of average size
but here it occupies
three separate frames 
162 x 130.3 cm

The frames follow one another
with parts of the furniture 







frame #1
middle of the piece
a line can be seen from the floor
the second and third shelves
the latter with 
a multitude of small columns

frame #2
bottom of the cabinet
first and second shelves
placed at an angle 
on a brown clay floor
which takes up half of the painting

frame #3
top of the piece of furniture 
cut off at the top
and shelf with all the colonnades

an internet search 
on this piece of furniture
gives me the following result

antique side etagere turned legs

with a 19th century Victorian model
which also has the particularity
to have the last shelf filled 
with turned wooden columns

apparently designed 
to hold crystal jugs

This set of lines 
vertical and horizontal
is enhanced at the edges 
by translucent caramel additions 

A succession of light and shadow 
that creates a rhythmic optical effect
reminiscent of Mondriaan's grids

but the title of the paintings
SKELETON in capitals 
puts us on another track
just as rhythmic

that of the Danse Macabre of the Middle Ages
a sort of popular Memento Mori 
to remind us 
especially at carnival time
of our common and inexorable end

and it's true that these little columns
in turned wood
seem like clattering phalanges

as if these strange pieces of furniture
inherited from our grandparents 
carry within them the dancing imprint
of death







the three paintings are sold separately 
it's a pity



Roshan Di Puppo