The Man Who Walked Among Gnom 

Curator: Let's explore "The Man Who Walked Among Gnom" by John Bauer. It appears to be a watercolor and ink drawing on paper. Quite fantastical. My first impression is the gloom, like peering into a shaded dream. Editor: Bauer often worked with these mediums, exploring both the starkness of ink and the soft luminosity that watercolor washes can create. And you are right, that subdued palette reinforces its thematic elements of Nordic folklore, which is inextricably bound to notions of place. Look at the details here. Curator: The central figure is immense! Like a benevolent woodland deity but adorned with peculiar jewelry and presiding over a group of reindeer, almost guardian figures in the composition, all framed by what looks like a cavern. Note also that small prostrated human-like creature at the feet of the gnom. What could that be? Editor: Consider the period. Bauer created these works around the turn of the century in a socio-political atmosphere defined by emerging Swedish nationalism and Romanticism, which fostered great interest in traditional folklore. This drawing echoes those impulses, with his interest in rendering sagas in visible form, in conversation with artwork that engages similar folkloric content. Curator: You can see that. Even though the work uses traditional mediums, Bauer seems to reject some of the tenets of academic painting, relying on what seems to be an intuitive understanding of how form follows function; each reindeer seems constructed the same way from easily recognizable parts. Editor: Right, there’s almost a childlike wonder and reverence for nature here. But the fact that Bauer, by depicting folklore, taps into national identity and the broader project of shaping cultural understanding, makes this far from a simple scene of childlike fantasy. Think of those early illustrators who informed common visual perceptions of cultures outside Europe, for instance. Bauer partakes in something similar, though localized to the landscape he knew intimately. Curator: The layering of the paint adds to its otherworldly aesthetic, that deliberate act of obscuring and revealing which is interesting. There is an appealing relationship between artifice and process, don't you think? Editor: Exactly. And how Bauer mobilizes a sense of place while simultaneously constructing figures steeped in the social dimensions of folklore—it’s a powerful synthesis to reflect upon. Curator: Precisely! Editor: Food for thought, indeed.