Davos in Winter. Davos in Snow 1923

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this painting of Davos, maybe in the 1920s, using bright oil paints. You can almost feel how Kirchner built up the image, stroke by stroke, letting the peaks and valleys emerge through color. I like to imagine him, brush in hand, trying to capture not just the look of Davos, but also the feeling, the crisp air, the hugeness of the mountains against the tiny village. He probably thought hard about how to get the blue of the sky and the pink in the snow just right. Look at how he's used these diagonal strokes through the center of the image—the rhythmic mark-making creates a cool sense of depth and space. It reminds me of the work of other Expressionists. All painters are in dialogue, I think, seeing and responding to each other across time. Painting is a way of thinking.