Kasperltheater 1907

This small-scale theatre scene was made by Hans Kalmsteiner, likely using watercolor and ink. Look how the artist set the stage, framing these puppet characters with a decorative border. I can imagine him carefully applying these precise shapes, and the colors are so flat, so contained. What I love about painting, and this is painting, is that the artist is inviting us into the scene but also into the process of making. The image is very compact, but the flat planes of color give it a punch, like a stage set. There’s something about the image that looks forwards and backwards in art history. It could be referencing the folk tradition of puppetry, but also playing with early modernist ideas. The artist may be gone, but painting provides an ongoing exchange of ideas and approaches.