Farbstudien, 10 Blätter I 1923

Karl Wiener made this Farbstudien using watercolor. I love the light washes of color, how they bleed into each other, making the image seem to breathe and shift. I can imagine Wiener in his studio, testing out different color combinations, letting the water do its thing on the page. The orange feels warm and inviting, while the green is like a cool shadow. Look at how the colors aren't contained, they float and mingle like feelings, each hue hinting at a different mood. When you're painting with watercolor there is no going back, you have to embrace what happens and work with it. The colors mix on the paper in such a way that it creates a third color, a new and unexpected color, almost like a collaboration between the artist and the medium. It reminds me of Agnes Martin's quiet, meditative grids, or even Helen Frankenthaler's soak-stain paintings, where color becomes an environment. The way the colors interact with each other is very special, creating something unique that builds on the language of abstraction.