Gegensätze II 1934

Walter Kurt Wiemken made this painting, Gegensatze II, with gouache, probably sometime in the 1930s. The colours are laid on in thin washes with a strange ochre-y, fleshy palette. The painting has a dreamlike quality; its images feel as though they have been chosen at random. The painting is divided horizontally into two distinct registers. In the lower half we see a frieze of skeletal figures who are all holding hands. The figures seem to be suspended in a cloudy medium, rendered using very thin layers of paint. The upper half of the composition is like a stage set, with carefully positioned props and players. Look at the area in the upper left, with the flayed animal carcass, the pinks and the reds that are bleeding into the white. It’s kind of gross and beautiful, repulsive and alluring. This reminds me a little of Soutine, who Wiemken could well have looked at. Ultimately, the painting celebrates the fact that art is a conversation across time, a dialogue between artists and audiences that is never truly finished.