Shot Fox 1940 - 1943

Arnold Peter Weisz-Kubínčan made this "Shot Fox" with pastel, I reckon. There's something raw about how the marks sit on that ground, almost like the fox has been etched into the paper itself. I can imagine the artist feeling for the animal, empathizing with its vulnerability, maybe even identifying with it. The scene is alive with implied movement – those swirls of color, the nervous energy of the line. The greens and blues of the forest mingle with the warm oranges and reds around the fox. But what gets me is how the artist hasn’t labored to conceal the process. You can almost see him trying to figure out where the legs go. It's a real exchange, this painting. A conversation between the artist, the fox, and, well, us. It’s as if he’s inviting us to finish the painting, to meet him halfway in the act of creation. And that's what I love about painting – it's never really finished, is it?