Sittende ung kvinne 1916

Edvard Munch made this painting, Sittende ung kvinne, using oil paint in a way that feels both restless and considered. Look at the blues and blacks; see how they wrestle with the lighter oranges and yellows. It’s like a dance, a push and pull right there on the canvas. Munch wasn't trying to hide the process. The paint isn't blended smooth; you can see the strokes, the decisions he made and changed. Notice the way he's built the form of the young woman with these visible marks. It’s gestural but also solid, capturing a feeling more than a photographic likeness. The pinks in the lower left of the painting create a sense of shadow but also a weight, they are a ground, both figurative and literal, for the seated figure. The raw emotionality and the visible brushwork remind me of Van Gogh, though Munch is pushing into something even more interior, more psychological. It’s like he's painting the inside of a feeling, not just what he sees. And maybe that's what art is, after all – a way of making the invisible visible.