16574 („Wie ist so schlimm die jetzige Zeit …“) 1932

John Elsas made this cut-and-glued paper construction, "16574," sometime in his life. The title translates as: "How awful is the current time." With cut paper, it’s all about the precision of the scissors and the confidence of the initial cut. Elsas’s figure is rendered with simple geometry, a flattened plane of colour applied with the bare minimum of fuss. The figure is made from just a few basic shapes, its hair made from stripes of yellow and grey paper. Its skin is a flat orange tone. The hand reaching out, as if to ask for help, is just a simple triangle. There's a directness here, a kind of childlike simplicity that cuts through the layers of artistic convention. Elsas reminds me a bit of Guston, both artists sharing a similar expressive language through simplified forms and raw emotion. Like Guston, Elsas isn’t afraid to be vulnerable and raw. Ultimately, art is about making connections, and Elsas invites us to connect with him.