Enemies Surrounded By The Hundreds And Pushed Forward Like A Herd Of Game 1915

Achille Beltrame made this artwork in an unknown year. Looking at this scene, I think about the sheer number of marks required to make all those figures. The artist must have been looking, assessing, and then painting figures over and over and over again. I imagine Beltrame sitting with his materials, trying to bring this scene to life. He would have been thinking about the repetition of shapes and colors to create a feeling of endlessness. The earth tones and muted blues create a melancholy mood, and the way the figures blur into one another suggests a loss of individual identity within the mass of soldiers. I am thinking of Philip Guston or Leon Golub and how they created a feeling of anxiety and alienation. With painting, artists are always looking at each other's works across time. We share ideas, steal them, and make them our own. It's about uncertainty; It's about seeing what can happen.