5 Uhr c. 1921

Karl Wiener made this drawing called 5 Uhr, meaning 5 o’clock, in ink and colored pencil. It’s a flurry of marks, chaotic and contained. You can feel the scratch of the pencil digging into the paper, the frenetic energy of the artist's hand. Around the edges, books or blocks are scribbled in greys and blues, held in place by tangled lines. The colors are layered, almost violently, building up texture and depth. Then the eye is drawn into the centre of the image, a yellow, almost golden portal, and a cascade of tiny numbers at the base. Are these numbers counting up or down? It’s not clear, and that’s OK! The whole composition, with it’s naive shapes, reminds me of some of the visionary art of Adolf Wölfli. Both artists seem to share an interest in a kind of feverish, dreamlike mark-making. Like Wölfli, Wiener’s work is raw and deeply personal, inviting us to interpret his vision rather than dictating a single meaning.