Composition 1919

This is a painting by Janos Mattis-Teutsch, and it’s been made with strokes of oil paint in a luscious palette of blues, yellows, greens, and reds. I bet it came into being through a process of intuition, like the painter was feeling their way through it. I really sympathize with the artist—I’ve been there! Like, what could he have been thinking when he laid down that stroke of thick dark green? Was it a moment of tension, maybe a pause for reflection? The texture, the colours, the way they sit on the surface - these are the things that make a painting sing. And look at the blues swirling like little clouds, communicating a sense of calm. It is very interesting to imagine the painter in conversation with other painters across time. It’s a continuous exchange of ideas, inspiring one another. Painting, like any other embodied expression, invites us to interpret things in our own way. It's about embracing uncertainty.