5 Uhr c. 1921

Karl Wiener made "5 Uhr" with colored pencils and ink, and it’s wild! The whole image seems to vibrate with energy. There’s this intense yellow oval, maybe a doorway, and chaotic scribbles surround it like a storm. I can imagine Wiener hunched over this piece, obsessively layering lines and colors, pushing and pulling at the image until it felt right. Look how the dark inks create a sense of depth, while the bright yellow jumps forward. It's kind of a mess, but a beautiful one. The numbers at the bottom… are they counting up or down? Is this the end or a beginning? It reminds me of some of Cy Twombly's work, that same feeling of raw, unfiltered expression. Wiener is not trying to be pretty, he’s trying to be real, to capture something essential about time, or maybe just the feeling of five o’clock! Artists, you know, we’re all in this big conversation, riffing off each other, trying to make sense of the world one brushstroke at a time. "5 Uhr" is a reminder that painting is a way of thinking, a way of feeling, and a way of being in the world.