Skt. Adolf=Thron,=Alpa=Roosali 1917

Adolf Wölfli’s drawing feels as though it was made compulsively. The colour palette is intense—red, yellow, green, blue—and the surface is totally covered. I can imagine Wölfli working on this, patiently filling every corner with these bizarre, totemic figures. Looking at the geometric border around the central image, it feels like a meditation, a portal, or even a kind of cage. The mask-like face at the center, framed by a red and white halo, appears both regal and unsettling. Wölfli’s marks teem with life. They remind me of Guston's late work, but also Klee, both of whom had an outsider sensibility even though they were in the centre of things. The animals, or figures, are stacked one on top of the other like a strange heraldic crest. In painting, as in life, one thing leads to another. Wölfli’s drawing reminds us of this ongoing exchange between artists, where we find inspiration by looking, sharing, and riffing off the work of others.