Composition 1919

This is an artwork by Janos Mattis-Teutsch, titled Composition, and it’s made with watercolor. Looking at this painting is like looking through the eyes of a mystic. There’s a central form—a kind of radiant, upward-moving energy, maybe a budding flower or a spiritual ascent. I imagine Mattis-Teutsch in a trance-like state, lost in the push and pull of colors and forms. There’s that dark blue contour line at the bottom, like a grounding force, contrasting with the yellows and greens that shoot upwards. The layered brushstrokes, how they bleed and blend, it's as though the artist sought to capture not just what he saw, but what he felt. Each stroke feels like a little decision, a response to the color laid down before. It’s easy to imagine this as part of a larger conversation painters have with one another across time, where we are all just influencing each other’s creativity.