Groteske c. 1928

Karl Wiener made this drawing, Groteske, with colored pencils. Look at how the marks are built up, layer upon layer. It feels like Wiener is figuring things out as he goes along, the kind of art where the process is as important as the final image. The texture is amazing, right? The colors kind of vibrate against each other, like he’s pushing the limits of what these pencils can do. Check out the figure on the right, with its dark green outline and lurid orange skin. The heavy marks give it this super intense, almost feverish quality. The whole thing is vibrating with a kind of raw energy. For me, art isn't about answers, it's about opening up questions. Wiener's work reminds me a little of some of the more out-there stuff by outsider artists like Adolf Wolfli – that same kind of obsessive mark-making and willingness to go to strange places. It's a good reminder that art is always in conversation, even across time and different contexts.