Landscape with Hills 1916

Janos Mattis-Teutsch made this landscape painting with hills of all colors; it's like a dream slipping sideways into reality. It’s all soft lines, one after the other, like waves, each carefully placed. I’m imagining him there, maybe outside, trying to catch the light, trying to make these simple marks become something bigger. He's got yellows and greens, blues, all these gentle colors, and it’s like he's coaxing them into being hills, into being a sky. The painting is mostly made of lines, each one a little journey. Look at the way the colors blend – or don't. It's like he's showing us how colors can be friends, even if they're different. It reminds me of Agnes Martin’s grids, but looser, warmer. It’s almost like he's whispering to the earth, asking it to show him its secrets, and then he's sharing them with us. He’s inviting us to see the world, not as it is, but as it could be, full of gentle colors and simple shapes.