Selva (Series A) 1987

Karl Otto Gotz made "Selva (Series A)" using expressive and fluid mark-making, employing a palette of muted, earthy tones. I love the way the texture and color in this piece aren’t just decorative, but really shape the emotional experience. Look closely and you can see the physicality of the medium, how the paint is applied in both thick and thin layers, transparent and opaque. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the surface. There’s this one area, where the brushstrokes swirl and collide, creating a sense of dynamic tension. It’s like the whole piece is held together by this delicate balance of forces. Gotz’s approach reminds me a little of Cy Twombly, in the way he embraces chance and improvisation in his work, but with a more controlled sense of energy. Ultimately, what I find so compelling about this piece is its ambiguity, how it invites us to project our own meanings and associations onto it.