Composition 1920

Janos Mattis-Teutsch's 'Composition' is a field of curved gestures in oil paint. He’s laid down strokes of teal, yellow, red, and purple. I can almost feel him layering the paint, shifting, adjusting, and making decisions as he goes. It feels like he’s carving out a little arena, right? A contained space to hold a feeling, a question, or a fleeting idea. I wonder, what was Janos thinking? Was he trying to express the inexpressible, that thing we can't quite put our finger on but feels like it's just out of reach? There’s a juicy materiality to the paint application, a testament to the joy of smearing colors on a surface. It reminds me of Kandinsky and the early abstractionists, who were likewise exploring the emotional resonance of pure form and color. Like them, Mattis-Teutsch reminds us that art is never truly finished but rather a site of ongoing exploration.