The gust of wind 1904

Editor: We are looking at "The Gust of Wind," a charcoal and pastel drawing created around 1904 by Léon Spilliaert. It definitely evokes a sense of isolation, even melancholy. How would you interpret this work through a formalist lens? Curator: What is most compelling about this work, if we suspend biographical speculation, is the severe economy of its lines and its compositional tensions. Note the stark division of the pictorial space, achieved by rendering nearly the entire lower half as an impenetrable gloom from which vertical structural elements ascend. Editor: The lines you point out are striking. What do you see as the function of the composition overall? Curator: Indeed. They direct the viewer's gaze relentlessly upwards toward the figure caught at the railing. Further, there is a visual rhyme: observe how the line of the horizon finds an echo in the tension of the rope stretched across the frame. These linear echoes provide compositional integrity. Also note how the limited palette of greys concentrates affect, even without an anecdotal narrative. Are you sensitive to this? Editor: I see what you mean, there is a sense of connection even in isolation. It gives an unexpected unity. Curator: Precisely. We find here, even in its somber presentation, how a work reveals itself to be a cohesive arrangement when apprehended according to its constituent formal devices. Editor: Thank you! It is a helpful new way to observe Spilliaert's skill. Curator: A worthwhile exchange, I believe. I shall ponder those greys further myself.