We asked kids to tell us what they saw when they looked at a piece of art at Tate Britain, one of Tate's art galleries in London.
"It's the biggest canvas ever in the world!"
"It's a scribbling drawing!"
Is it just a scribble? How did they make it? Maybe it's magic...? What ARE they talking about?
Oscar Murillo
Manifestation (2019–20)
Tate
© Oscar Murillo, Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner. Photo by Jack Hems
Artist Oscar Murillo made this giant painting called Manifestation. It's not a painting that just used paint - the artist combined oil paint, oil stick, cotton thread and graphite. It's not painted on a regular canvas either, but a mix of canvas, velvet and linen stitched together by hand.
The painting is 2.5 metres high and 3 metres across - that's bigger than a giant bison. Murillo made it in sections, over a long period of time, by standing over it on the floor of his studio in Colombia during the coronvirus pandemic of 2020. By leaving it on the studio floor as he made the other sections, the painting got dusty and according to Murillo took on the ‘energy’ of the studio. Murillo said because he didn't tidy up the studio during this time, making this painting was a bit 'like cooking a long red meat stew'!
