Hüttledorf Brewery, A. Brusatti 1912

This little sheet, ‘Hüttledorf Brewery’ by Gustav Kalhammer, is a scene bustling with life. I can imagine the artist, back then, scratching away at this tiny surface, trying to capture the vibe of a summer garden. Look at how the tables are placed. How the chairs create this rhythm of vertical lines. It’s so stylized. I bet Kalhammer was trying to create the feeling of being in a crowd, like a Seurat or something. It is very evocative. He probably observed the light filtering through the trees, casting dappled shadows on the tablecloths, people drinking beer. He probably wanted to create a slice of life. You get the sense of a real, lived-in space, not some idealized version. Painting can be a generous act like that. Artists give us their perspective, their way of seeing, and we, in turn, get to expand our own. I like to think we're all in an ongoing conversation about what it means to be alive, one painting at a time.