Farmer 1942

Arnold Peter Weisz-Kubínčan made this drawing, Farmer, with pastels, in shades of ochre and warm browns, with touches of chalky green. I can see the powdery pigment has settled on the surface, like a film, like the dust of a field. You can see the movements, the layering of marks, and the artist's hand building the figure into being, again and again, with confidence. It is as if Kubínčan is trying to capture something fleeting, a gesture, a memory, something half-seen and half-remembered. The farmer is bent over, perhaps tending the land, perhaps resting. I wonder what Kubínčan was thinking about when he made this drawing? What did the farmer mean to him? In some ways, all artists are farmers, sowing seeds, nurturing growth, and waiting for the harvest. We're all in conversation with one another through time, drawing and redrawing the world.