15231 („Was erfreut das Publikum …“) 1931

John Elsas made this small watercolor drawing around 1921, probably in an asylum. You can see how he worked in layers, letting the watery pigment pool and bleed into the paper. The whole thing feels kind of provisional, like he's thinking through this strange little figure as he goes. I’m drawn to the way Elsas renders the body. The figure's torso is like a series of blue clouds, each stroke applied with a delicate, almost hesitant touch. Then you have these spindly legs, rendered in a completely different style. The head, topped with what looks like a globe, stares out with an unnerving intensity. The overall effect is unsettling, but also strangely endearing. It reminds me a bit of some of Alfred Jarry’s absurd, proto-surrealist drawings, or maybe even some of the more whimsical works of Paul Klee. It's like a little visual poem, open to endless interpretations. In the end, art like this reminds us that meaning is never fixed, it’s always in motion, always changing.