Blühender Kaktus 1933

Christian Rohlfs made this Blühender Kaktus with pastel on paper. It's got this really interesting mix of soft and scratchy marks, right? Like he's building up the image bit by bit, letting the process show. I'm drawn to the way he's handled the surface. It's not about hiding the work, but embracing it. The pastel is thin in places, almost transparent, and then thicker, more opaque elsewhere. Look at the yellow area in the middle. You can see how the strokes of pastel create a glowing form, with bits of green peeking through. It's like he's revealing the layers of thought and feeling that went into making this thing. There’s something about this that reminds me of Emil Nolde, that same raw energy and vibrant color. It’s a reminder that art is a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas across time. Rohlfs’ work invites us to embrace ambiguity, to find our own meaning in the marks and gestures.