Schneeschmelze (Melting Snow) 1922

Max Pechstein's "Melting Snow" is a landscape made with a palette knife that sings of cool blues, greens, and creams. I like to imagine Pechstein outside in the cold air, pushing around the icy paint, thinking about the way the light filters through the bare trees. The trees themselves are outlined and filled with strong gestures of deep green paint. The marks are so present, like brushstrokes carved into the canvas. The snow looks like an impression of melting snow, wet, slippery and sludgy. Pechstein was part of Die Brücke, a group of German expressionist artists, and you can really see their interest in color and emotion in this painting. It's as if he's not just showing us a landscape, but also trying to capture a feeling, the sensation of winter giving way to something new. It feels really personal, like a diary entry in paint. And it reminds me that every artist is in conversation with the ones who came before. We’re all just trying to make sense of the world in our own way.