“There is nothing more surreal than reality.”

Giorgio Morandi in his paintings investigates the relationship between the real and illusory : “I am essentially a painter of the kind of still life composition that communicates a sense of tranquility and privacy, moods which I have always valued above all else”. “What interests me the most is expressing what’s in nature, in the visible world, that is.” “Everything is a mystery, ourselves, and all things both simple and humble.” My colleague and friend Keith Wheeler had made me aware that the Phillips Collection was just around the corner of my hotel. I used my free morning in Washington to go there. To my happy surprise they had an exhibition of Morandi. For me looking at his paintings is a training to understand perception, reality and emptiness. The still lifes almost have an architectural composition of bottles and other simple utensils. There is very little depth and focus; almost no perspective or shadows; colours, forms and texture are almost ‘mute’; light, time and space seem to have stopped to exist. I could not take my eyes off them. I can still hear their silent message: inner peace.