Herdsboy 1930 - 1944

Arnold Peter Weisz-Kubínčan made "Herdsboy" using what looks like soft pastel, maybe even chalk, on a textured paper. The colors are muted, earthy, and it gives this real sense of place and atmosphere, of a specific time of day, and emotional weather. The real star of this piece is the surface: Kubínčan leaves the marks exposed, almost raw. There's no attempt to blend or smooth them out, which gives it this wonderful immediacy. Look closely at the way the artist has rendered the forest behind the figure. See how the vertical strokes of green and brown build up this dense, almost impenetrable wall of trees? It's like the forest is breathing down the herdsboy's neck. And then there's that sun, or is it a moon, rendered with the most basic circular mark? It reminds me a little of Milton Avery, who was working around the same time, in the way Kubínčan simplifies forms and uses color to create mood. But there's something rawer, more vulnerable about Kubínčan's work, maybe something to do with the times he was living in. In any case, this is one of those pieces that reminds us that art isn't about answers, but about questions.