Capri motiiv 1921 - 1922

Konrad Mägi made this Capri scene with oil on canvas, and it feels like he's juggling how we see, almost daring us to piece it all together. Look at the paint – it’s applied in these decisive, almost chunky strokes, building up the forms but also breaking them down into abstract shapes. The colours aren't blended so much as they're juxtaposed, like the greens and blacks that define the mountains. Then there’s this almost aggressively white structure on the right, a series of blocks that suggest a building and a staircase, but it’s so abstract it’s like a dare. And what about the dark lines crisscrossing the foreground? They ground us, but also push the scene into abstraction. Mägi reminds me of Marsden Hartley, who also chased these raw, emotional landscapes. Mägi lets ambiguity be the point. It’s a feeling, a suggestion, not a postcard.