Blühender Kaktus 1933

Christian Rohlfs made this pastel drawing, Blühender Kaktus, at some point in his long career, when he was already an older guy. The piece is all about these scratchy, washy strokes—a mix of light greens, yellows, and earthy browns, smudged and blended like he's trying to catch a fleeting memory of a cactus in bloom. Imagine him outside, squinting in the sunlight, quickly capturing the impression of the plant. I wonder if Rohlfs ever felt like the cactus, a tough exterior hiding a burst of color and life? There's this tension between control and letting go that I always find in the best paintings. I see him here, feeling his way through it. It feels like he's in conversation with other artists, like Emil Nolde, trying to find new ways to express feeling through color. It reminds us that art is just this ongoing conversation that artists have with each other. It embraces not knowing, and allowing for multiple readings. It is very intuitive.