Nova Aurigae 1918

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, also known as 'Witkacy', made this pastel drawing, titled Nova Aurigae, at an unknown date. You can see the color kinda vibrates, doesn't it? It's as if Witkacy wasn't just making marks, but also conjuring up a whole sensation. The texture! Look at that blue, feels like a dreamscape, and then these strokes of yellow and red cutting through, almost violent. And that face—is it serene or tormented? The eyes give me the chills. It's like he's scratched right into the surface of reality. The way those spirals seem to pull you in, like whirlpools, reminds me of Van Gogh's Starry Night. Both reach for something beyond our grasp. Art is like that, it invites us to get lost.