Nude 1912

Emil Filla made this nude watercolour drawing some time in the early 20th Century, and right away I’m thinking about how the constraints of the medium have shaped the image. It’s all translucent washes, folding and unfolding like thoughts in your head. The body is broken up into planes, almost like a geological formation or a half-remembered dream, with a colour palette that’s restricted to ochres, greys, and the barest hint of pink. The artist has laid down these washes with a kind of speed and certainty, but it’s also about absence, because so much is left unpainted. Look how the paper shows through, becoming part of the image. It’s just watercolour on paper, but the way Filla has handled the paint gives it real substance. It reminds me a bit of Cezanne who also constructed these shifting ambiguous forms. But ultimately what you are seeing is not a body, but an idea, a memory or a reflection of one.