Nächtliche Angst 1942

Karl Wiener made this drawing, Nächtliche Angst, with coloured pencil on paper, at some point in his career. Look at this dense cross-hatching that creates such a haunted and claustrophobic space. The process here is one of layering, building up colour slowly to create atmosphere. I love the way the reddish hues of the floor bleed into the shadows, giving the impression of a room filled with a silent, creeping dread. Then you have these ghostly figures, barely there, sketched in as if they are emerging from the walls. The red eyes on the figure above the fireplace, how they stare right through you! Wiener doesn’t hide the materiality of the drawing, letting the texture of the paper and the grain of the pencil marks become part of the image. The mood reminds me of some of Munch's darker works, where the internal world seeps out into the external environment. Art is a conversation across time, and Wiener seems to be in dialogue with these masters of psychological intensity, exploring the more ambiguous and uncomfortable aspects of the human condition.