Sacred Himalayas 1934

Nicholas Roerich made "Sacred Himalayas" with paint on canvas sometime in the first half of the 20th century. Look at these lavenders and blues, violets and whites, laid down in blocks and facets. You can imagine Roerich, out there in the high altitudes, thinking about light, and angles, and how to make a painting feel like such an epic space. Like an encounter. The paint seems thin, and the forms are simplified, almost geometric, and yet there is a feeling of the sublime that comes through. Think of Agnes Martin and her grids, how they tried to evoke a kind of meditative state. Roerich is doing that, but with mountains. Each brushstroke feels considered, searching for the right balance between representation and abstraction, the familiar and the unknown. Painters are always in conversation with each other across time. Roerich's piece reminds us that painting, like any good conversation, is about exchange, about seeing the world in new ways, and about the ongoing, uncertain search for meaning.