Violet Landscape 1917

Janos Mattis-Teutsch's "Violet Landscape" is a painting where color does the talking and creates an uncanny vision. I imagine Janos layering those violets and greens, one stroke at a time, probably trying to catch something that wasn’t quite there yet. It's like he's pushing the landscape form into something we've never quite seen but feels familiar. The violet is smoothed across the canvas, a strange choice for a landscape, right? But look at those vertical pink trunks rising up, surrounded by the green curves. When I see paintings like this, I think about other painters like Marsden Hartley or even Hilma af Klint, all of them trying to find a way to express something beyond the surface of things. Painting is all about having a conversation with the world, each artist adding their voice to the mix. And it’s never really done.