Composition 1920

Janos Mattis-Teutsch made this unnamed composition using oil paint and a loaded brush. The juicy colors and bold shapes here are all about art-making as a process of discovery. I’m really drawn to how the material aspects shape the feeling of the artwork. The colors, the blues, reds, greens and yellows – they aren’t mixed, they are straight from the tube and unapologetically bright. The paint looks applied wet-on-wet, creating a tactile surface. This is not a work about concealing the process. See that long black stroke cutting across the middle? It’s so decisive and brings a kind of tension to the composition. Mattis-Teutsch’s later works became increasingly abstract and spiritual, reflecting his interest in theosophy and expressionism, and his earlier works experimented with similar abstraction to Kandinsky. Ultimately, like all good art, this piece holds multiple meanings, none more valid than another.