II. Weltkrieg c. 1940

Karl Wiener made this artwork called 'II. Weltkrieg' using pastel on paper. It has this eerie, dreamlike quality, doesn't it? I imagine him building up the image with layers of soft marks and blending the colours—deep blues and greys, with that strange yellow form kind of looming over everything. I'm drawn to that ghostly cloud or plume; it's like smoke, but also like a memory or a feeling. What’s interesting is that it’s hard to tell what’s going on. There are these architectural elements in the background, and then this strange pink ground plane. It makes me wonder what Wiener was thinking. Was he trying to capture the feeling of uncertainty and chaos that comes with war? It has a naive quality, doesn’t it? Like outsider art or folk art. You know, artists are always talking to each other across time, riffing on ideas and pushing them further. It’s a conversation, a back-and-forth. Painting can hold so many different possibilities.