And we are opening the gates 1924

Nicholas Roerich made "And we are opening the gates" with oil, though we don't know exactly when. Isn't it funny how paint can trick you? At first glance, it’s just a landscape, mountains in the distance. But Roerich doesn't let us off that easily. Look at the doorway. It’s not quite real, is it? The paint is scrubbed, and dragged, with such rough, visible strokes and layers of mauve and grey. Roerich is using the doorway almost as a stage. The thickness of the paint, that heavy impasto, makes it solid, a real, touchable thing. And beyond it, those soft blues and pale yellows. The contrast makes the landscape feel almost like a dream, a backdrop in a play. Roerich, like Marsden Hartley, had a deep interest in spiritualism. What are these gates opening to? Some other state? A different way of seeing? It's up to you.