Abendromanze 1938

Karl Wiener made Abendromanze with pencil and ink in 1938. The bold outlines give the impression of a stained-glass window, each shape ready to be filled with color, but left instead as a study in tonal variation. I find myself drawn to the horizon line, where the sky meets a range of hills punctuated by a factory or a fortress – it’s hard to tell which. The drawing is rendered in soft graphite washes that give the landscape a misty, dreamlike quality. This delicate shading provides a contrast with the crisp, angular lines that define the figures in the foreground. The face on the right bears a stylistic similarity to Picasso’s neoclassical portraits from the 1920s. Wiener shows us how the language of art is constantly evolving, with artists borrowing and reinterpreting ideas across generations. Like dreams, paintings are full of ambiguities.