Landscape 4 1961

Karel Malich made this painting, Landscape 4, with paint on paper. There is something immediate about the directness of the marks in this piece. The ochre colour is brushed loosely across the surface, leaving lots of gaps, like half-formed thoughts. It could be a landscape, or a memory of a landscape, but it is more of an emotional space. Look at the circular form in the bottom right corner, an almost cloud-like shape with dark brown patches, but then there is a sharp yellow mark, which animates the whole painting! Malich is working in the realm of suggestion rather than depiction, with the overall texture of the piece left quite raw and exposed. I am reminded of work by Forrest Bess, an artist who was also driven by internal visions and the urge to externalise his personal world. Both artists embrace ambiguity.