17584 (_The stupid woman …_) 1932

John Elsas made this curious little gouache, collage, and ink drawing called 'The Stupid Woman...' sometime around 1932. I can imagine him piecing it together from scraps—a bit of patterned paper for the hats, delicate strokes of pale watercolor defining the figures. The scene is so odd, isn’t it? Two figures stand stiffly on a pink platform, one shaking the other's hand. The colors are muted, almost like a faded memory, except for that insistent pink. It's the kind of pink that shouts, contrasting with the muted palette, giving the piece an off-kilter energy. I can imagine Elsas, hunched over his table, carefully cutting and pasting, adding tiny details that hint at a larger narrative. What was he thinking about these characters, and their strange encounter? What's the message written below the image? I wonder how he saw the world, what drove him to create this peculiar yet captivating image, and what other artists he might have been in conversation with.