17348 („Ich kann den Mann gebrauchen …“) 1932

John Elsas made this curious collage, sometime before 1932, I'm guessing with whatever paper he had lying around. The thing that grabs me here is the flatness, how the figures are built from these blocky, geometric shapes. It's like Elsas is creating a world from the simplest of forms, and yet, these two figures have so much personality, don't they? I imagine Elsas carefully cutting and arranging these shapes, maybe muttering to himself as he tries to get the proportions just right. There's something so endearing about the imperfections, the slight awkwardness of the figures. It reminds me that art doesn't always have to be slick or polished. Sometimes, the most interesting things happen when we embrace the rough edges, the unexpected quirks. I wonder, did the naivety of folk art inspire him? Or maybe he found inspiration in artists like Matisse, who also played with flattened space and bold colors? Anyway, that's what this makes me think about, and it makes me want to go make something myself.