Hombre De Mar 1921

Carlos Quizpez Asín created this haunting figure, Hombre De Mar, using watercolor and ink. It's all about the mood, right? The blues and blacks create this enveloping sense of melancholy. Up close, you can see how the ink bleeds into the paper, the way the artist used thin washes to build up these layers of color. Look at the man’s cloak and how it seems to dissolve into the shadows. The color almost feels like it's been scrubbed into the paper, like the artist was trying to pull the image out of the material itself. There is something very gestural about the approach, and it really feels like Asín was led by the materials in front of him. This piece reminds me a little of the early work of Emil Nolde, especially in the way he evokes emotion through color and simplified forms. There’s a powerful simplicity to the composition, embracing ambiguity and multiple interpretations.