White horse performance act 1909

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this painting, called 'White horse performance act,' in 1908 using oil on canvas. Kirchner is laying down blocks of colour, really letting us see how it's made. The horses are so white, but if you look close, there's blues and yellows, bits of everything making up that white! It’s as if he's not just showing us a performance, but the very act of seeing itself. Then there's that figure in green, almost blending into the background, yet holding the whole scene together. The texture of the paint, especially in the horses’ manes, gives them a kind of energetic, almost frantic feel. He reminds me a bit of Van Gogh actually, in the way he uses colour to express feeling. But Kirchner's got his own thing going on, it's not about perfection, it's about capturing a moment. I love the way he embraces the mess, the ambiguity.