Land of snow people 1947

Nicholas Roerich painted Land of Snow People with what looks like tempera, layering in these big geological shapes. It’s all about the experience of making, finding the shapes and edges, working within the constraints of the materials. The paint is opaque, but thin, and it's laid on in these flat areas of color, like a stage set. I like the way the mountains in the background are cut out like paper. Look closely at the foreground; the mountain on the right has a dark contour. It's not super defined, but it pushes forward and makes the space seem to go back further. Roerich was into the spiritual side of art, like Hilma af Klint. Both wanted to express something beyond the visible world, but Roerich went for landscapes, not abstraction. Art is always an exchange of ideas, and in this piece, he shows how to make the unseen seen.