Mountains 1934

Martiros Sarian made this drawing of mountains using what looks like black ink on paper. The marks are dark and confident, like the artist knew exactly where they were going. I can imagine Sarian outside, maybe in his native Armenia, rapidly sketching the landscape as the light shifts. Look at how he uses diagonal lines to create a sense of volume and depth. It’s like he’s trying to capture not just the look of the mountains, but also their weight and texture. See those small trees and figures at the bottom? They give a sense of scale and make the mountains feel even more monumental. It reminds me of Cezanne and his obsession with Mont Sainte-Victoire, how he kept returning to the same subject, trying to understand it from different angles and in different light. There’s something so human about that urge to connect with the world through drawing and painting, to make sense of our place in it. Artists are always in conversation with each other, riffing on the same themes and ideas, trying to push things further.