Ohne Titel; aus; ‘Die 150 Blätter’ II 1940

Karl Wiener made this painting in 1940 using dark and moody oil paints. The colors are deep blues, reds, and purples, which give the whole scene a kind of spacey, twilight feeling. I can imagine Wiener making this, maybe feeling a bit like the figure in the painting – solitary, thoughtful, with those sunglasses hiding something. The paint looks pretty thick, like he's really laying it on there, maybe even using a palette knife to get those heavy textures. See how the sky is kind of striated? It's like he's scraping the paint across the surface. That one line going from the UFO to the head is really something, isn't it? It connects the earthly and the unearthly, like a ray of inspiration or maybe even control. And it reminds me of other painters, like Hilma af Klint, who were also exploring these kinds of visionary ideas in their work. Artists are always in conversation with each other, you know, even across time. They inspire each other, challenge each other, and keep the whole thing moving forward.