Abendlandschaft Wien 1942

Karl Wiener made this landscape of Vienna with pastels, probably around the time the Second World War was kicking off. Look closely and you can see each stroke, little hatched marks that build up into blocks of color. It's like the feeling of making art is right there on the surface. The texture is so key; it’s velvety and soft, yet the forms themselves, those dark silhouettes, they’re pretty severe. I really love how that central tower almost pierces the sky. It's a single, assertive mark, but the pastel gives it this fuzzy edge, like it's dissolving into the atmosphere. The colors too, that band of golden yellow against the cool blues and purples, it creates such a mood. Wiener’s like an early Agnes Martin in the way he lets the materials do their thing. It’s this tension between control and letting go, that’s what makes the work so compelling for me.