Church 1928

Adalbert Erdeli gave us this oil painting of a church, and who knows what that sky was doing to him, but something sure was going on up there with those blues and pinks and that wild, washy brush! I can imagine him working at speed, trying to capture the light, squinting at the scene... What was he trying to remember as he built up that little holy village? I bet his hand remembers more than his mind does. Look how the brushstrokes are little gestures of feeling, picking out the details and textures. Notice the way the paint is layered, thick in some places, thin in others, giving it depth and dimension. That dark green tree on the left is so present. You know, this piece reminds me a little of the early work of some of the Fauves, full of that same emotional charge! We’re always building on each other’s language, that’s what artists do. You start talking, I start listening, and we’re all changed in the process.