Odalisques Resting 1945

Iosif Iser's 'Odalisques Resting' looks like it was coaxed into being with pastels, maybe even charcoal. You can see the powdery strokes building up the forms, a real sense of the hand moving across the paper. The beauty of pastel, you know, is in its directness, that there's not much between you and the color, and here it's all about immediacy. Look how he layers color upon color to build up the shadows and the textures of the fabric. There's a beautiful contrast between the cool blues and greens in the figure in the background, and the warm yellows and reds in the foreground. It's not blended perfectly, and that's what makes it so interesting, that you can see the individual strokes, the decisions being made right there on the surface. It reminds me a bit of Degas, the way he captured the everyday moments with such intimacy and honesty. Art is like a conversation, isn't it? Each artist builds upon the ideas of those who came before, adding their own voice to the mix, embracing the beautiful mess of being alive.