Yellow-blue Landscape 1916

Janos Mattis-Teutsch’s 'Yellow-blue Landscape' is like a dreamscape, rendered in pastel colors with what looks like crayon on paper. I’m imagining the artist on location, maybe outside, quickly and spontaneously laying down marks that capture the essence of the place. The blue feels like an intuitive response to the light, while the yellow evokes the sun on the horizon. I wonder if Mattis-Teutsch was thinking about the Fauves and their intense colour palette, or maybe even the expressionists and their emotional intensity. Look at how the surface has these striated marks made from the side of the crayon—it reminds me of other artists and their own explorations with mark-making and texture. The beauty of painting is that it allows us to see the world in so many different ways. It’s like artists are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring each other across time. Mattis-Teutsch may have been looking at others, but he was bringing something new and unique to the table. Painting is always a dialogue.