Mottled landscape 1924

Martiros Sarian made this "Mottled Landscape" with oil on canvas, and when I look at it, I’m struck by the freedom and joy in the mark-making. It's like he's painting a feeling more than a place, which is the best thing about painting, really. The colors feel thick, saturated, almost edible – like colored sugar. Look at how the pinks and oranges butt up against those turquoise blues and greens. It's a real dance of contrasts. In the foreground, there’s this little village, nestled among the hills. The buildings are simplified into geometric shapes, but they still feel warm and inviting. And then your eye travels up to the mountains, which are all these gorgeous, sloping planes of color. There are these lines of small trees, which look like they are marching upwards. It’s an amazing bit of rhythmic composition, making you really feel the scale of the landscape. This work puts me in mind of Marsden Hartley, another artist who wasn't afraid to use bold color and simplified forms to express a deep love for the land. Art is always a dialogue, a conversation across time, and it’s never about fixed meanings. It is about possibilities.