Game of Skill 1933

Stephen Mopope made this painting, Game of Skill, with what looks like watercolor, and maybe some gouache, on paper. The colors are gentle, almost pastel, but that doesn't mean they're not doing some heavy lifting. Look at the way Mopope layers the landscape; he uses the washes of color to suggest depth and distance. The mountains in the back are pale and hazy, but the green of the field is vibrant, almost alive. There’s a flatness to the painting, but he balances it with a sense of space and movement. The figures, lined up in their robes, are almost like a row of colors themselves. It feels like he’s showing us a world where people and nature are in balance, playing together, maybe even dreaming together. You know, it reminds me a little bit of Arthur Dove, how he used color to express a feeling or a mood, not just to describe what he saw. I think there's a lot of room in art for feeling and seeing to become, like, a third thing. It's never either / or.