Standing Male Nude, Unterengstringen 1956

Max Gubler made this painting, Standing Male Nude, in Unterengstringen, using oil on canvas, and what strikes me is the sheer physicality of the paint. There’s a real sense of struggle and searching in the way Gubler has modeled the figure. You can almost feel him wrestling with the form, smearing and scraping the paint to find the right balance of weight and volume. Look at that juicy stroke of gray down the left leg, and how it defines the curve of the calf. It makes me think of other artists like Guston, Auerbach, or even Soutine, who weren't afraid to get their hands dirty. I can imagine Gubler in his studio, hunched over the canvas, lost in the act of painting. The blue, the grey, the ochre, like a fauvist dream. It's like he's saying, "Here I am, flaws and all, trying to make sense of the world through this messy, beautiful medium." And in that vulnerability, there’s a kind of strength and honesty that really resonates.