Basgo 1932

Nicholas Roerich made this painting, Basgo, with tempera on canvas. He’s got these big shapes, right? Almost like stage sets, and the colors are so saturated. The light is, well, it's like a dream, a memory, or maybe a premonition, not quite real. The surface has this matte quality. You can tell it's tempera, not oil – it drinks up the light, and each brushstroke stays put, like a fossil. Look at the way the light hits the top of that central rock formation. It’s this radiant orange melting into red. The paint isn't blended so much as layered, each color holding its own. It reminds me of Arthur Dove, that interest in landscape, sure, but more so in the feeling of it, the way light changes everything. Ultimately, it’s about the process of seeing. It’s like Roerich is asking, how do we make sense of the world, and how does the world make sense of us? It’s a question without a clear answer, and that’s the beauty of it.