Himalayas 1941

Curator: Let's talk about Nicholas Roerich's "Himalayas," painted in 1941. Editor: What strikes me first is the indigo palette. The whole scene, sky to ground, breathes a cool, almost melancholic air. Curator: Roerich was fascinated by the Himalayas. He believed these mountains held profound spiritual significance. He used a combination of tempera and likely plein-air techniques to capture their essence. Editor: It’s interesting how the color itself functions almost like another material in that construction of belief, you know? Mining the earth for pigments that would convey not just a landscape, but a sense of higher power. It speaks to the cultural construction of the idea of "Himalayas". Curator: Exactly. He wasn’t just painting mountains, but projecting an entire spiritual world onto them. The choice of color and fresco texture are deliberate, hinting at permanence, spirituality. Almost a sacred place made from color. Editor: A fascinating consideration given tempera paint's history and cultural contexts of production, it speaks not only to spirituality, but Roerich's labour involved in grinding those raw pigments with a binding agent! Did he grind the pigment himself, and did it provide him with a new experience of labor, transforming its purpose into something other than pure exploitation? I am only imagining. Curator: You make a great point – the act of making it itself. Roerich saw beauty as transformative. I would describe this romanticised vista more a song or mantra. It has the ability to cleanse. It seems he worked feverishly during his lifetime... almost restless to catch and capture light or moments that inspire spiritual transformation. Editor: Indeed! It provokes thought about the function of this painting in social contexts as well, given that most of the labor processes in making tempera are invisible for ordinary audience today, unlike contemporary readymades like Marcel Duchamp's Fountain for example... Anyway. Curator: So, beyond the picturesque, there's something primal happening here, an exploration of art and matter becoming this elevated visual moment. Editor: Precisely! A collision, if you may. Curator: A collision that resonates deeply.