Karga 1933

This watercolor entitled ‘Karga’ was created by Nicholas Roerich, and it feels like the kind of painting that invites you to slow down and enter its space. The gentle gradations of color and simplified forms are evidence of artmaking as a patient, unfolding process. The paint application is wonderfully delicate, almost translucent in areas, creating a luminous quality. Look at the way Roerich layers washes of blue and mauve to suggest depth and atmosphere in the mountains. The angular, bold lines in the darker mountain on the right offer a counterpoint to the softer tones elsewhere. This direct, simplified markmaking is what really grabs me about Roerich’s landscapes, it is his willingness to embrace simplicity. Roerich was a contemporary of Kandinsky and like him, he experimented with abstraction to express spiritual ideas, which makes me think about Hilma af Klint. But Roerich’s spiritual interests seem more rooted in direct experience of the natural world, and of art as a means of attuning ourselves to it. There’s a quiet confidence in this piece, it lets us find our own way into the picture.