Kereksury 1927

Nicholas Roerich made this painting, Kereksury, with what looks like tempera or distemper, giving it a chalky, matte feel. Roerich’s landscapes feel different; he seems to know the secret language of rocks and mountains. There's an odd directness in the way the forms are laid down. The paint isn't trying to be anything other than what it is. It's got a kind of raw sincerity that I find appealing, like the way a child might draw. Look at that rock formation on the right. It’s made up of angular shapes, like a puzzle, but somehow it suggests a human figure, maybe someone meditating, totally at one with the landscape. Roerich was into theosophy, so he may have been trying to show us something about the spiritual connection between people and nature. He reminds me a little of Hilma af Klint, who was also trying to paint the invisible. It makes you wonder about art's role, not just in showing us what we see, but in hinting at what we can’t.