Kanopan Oeloe - Affaire Klein 1931

This image, titled Kanopan Oeloe - Affaire Klein, was made in 1931, but the artist is unknown. We can see a landscape of dense vegetation rendered in a full range of grey tones. The overall impression is one of depth and texture, the artist skillfully varying mark-making to suggest the different densities of foliage. Imagine the artist standing here with their camera, finding this composition. What might they have been thinking as they framed the shot? I’m thinking about the texture of the foliage in the foreground and the contrast with the regimented trees behind. The composition has a clear geometry but also a freedom in the foreground. It reminds me of painters like Edward Hopper who found unexpected beauty in everyday scenes. Artists are always in conversation with one another, even across time. We look and learn, trying to find our own voices in the mix. Painting is a way of seeing, a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty.