13839 (_One can …_) 1931

Curator: This is 13839 (_One can ..._) by John Elsas, created in 1931. It's a watercolor and pencil drawing on paper. What strikes you most about it? Editor: A gentle melancholia. It feels both simple and profoundly sad, like a single tear rolling down a cheek. Curator: Interesting. Simplicity is definitely key here, isn't it? The figure is so reduced, almost an echo. Yet the use of blue – that saturated ultramarine – against the off-white paper is quite striking. The artist wrote, "One cannot see the art in me, but simplicity is always beautiful" on it. Editor: Ah, the inscription below contextualizes it, I agree. Is Elsas suggesting a lack of artistic sophistication or making a statement on valuing essentialism during a period of political unease in Germany? It could be interpreted as resisting artifice, a turn to basic human expression in difficult times. Curator: Perhaps both. I see a fragility in the subject. Almost like a weeping icon. But then, there is a gentle humor in it, too. This character—floating in the middle of nowhere—what is she doing here? And why are there two colored marks delimiting it? It's slightly absurd. Editor: True, and the limited palette intensifies the feeling. The figure appears constrained. Also, to understand how people read “beauty” during those fractured, fractious times. German Expressionism was often an aggressive form; to focus on simplicity feels counter-narrative, a potentially radical act of artistic—and personal—survival. Curator: Elsas, whose birth name was John Bodenheimer, later fled Nazi Germany, went to England and changed his name, losing his parents to concentration camps. All this personal pain is very easy to bring to it. Editor: Absolutely. Even in its restraint, the drawing encapsulates a complex intersection of personal vulnerability, social critique, and a yearning for clarity amidst the impending darkness. Curator: It’s a reminder that even apparent simplicity can carry profound depth, if only we're willing to look beyond the surface. Editor: Precisely. An invitation to question conventional notions of beauty and locate strength in vulnerability. Thank you!