Issa and giant's head 1932

Nicholas Roerich painted ‘Issa and giant's head’ in an unknown year with thinned oil paint on canvas, to create these washes of otherworldly color. Look at the way Roerich builds the mountain range with these overlapping planes of pigment, like a collage. The matte surface absorbs the light, making the colors feel earthy and grounded, despite the surreal scene. And there's this really interesting contrast between the smoothness of the paint application and the rugged, almost violent shapes of the landscape. The colors, these muted purples, oranges, and greens, they create a sense of unease, like a dream that's just a little too vivid. That skull sitting there in the foreground, it's so matter-of-factly rendered, almost like a still life object. You can almost smell the dust and the decay. Roerich probably knew the theosophical paintings of Kandinsky, who similarly strove to render inner spiritual landscapes visible through symbolic forms and resonant colors. Ultimately, Roerich shows us that art isn't about answers, it's about the questions we ask along the way.