Nanda Devi 1944

Nicholas Roerich gave us “Nanda Devi” and its peaks with what looks like pastel on paper. There’s something about the economy of means here that’s really striking. Roerich wasn't trying to trick us into thinking we were looking at a photograph, instead he’s trying to get at the feeling of being in a place, and that feels very modern, you know? The way the blues and whites sit next to each other, those little hatched marks that suggest the contours of the mountains. He knows that he doesn’t have to describe every detail to give us the essence of the scene. Look at how the peaks of the mountains are outlined with a darker blue that makes them both graphic and ethereal at the same time. It reminds me a little of the way Agnes Martin uses a grid to describe a mood. There’s a quietness here, a sense of awe. Roerich gives us a mountain, but he also gives us an idea.