Der Turm 1940

Karl Wiener made this drawing, "Der Turm," sometime in the first half of the twentieth century with graphite and colored pencil on paper. I imagine Wiener patiently building up the image from the back forward, trying to find ways for these abstract shapes to cohere into something like a tower. I can feel how the light is rendered, and that little burst of yellow, just there. It reminds me of Kurt Schwitters, or maybe Lyonel Feininger. These artists had a deep interest in architecture and geometry, but they never let go of the feeling of the hand. Wiener must have been thinking: “How can I build something from nothing, like a child using blocks?” There is a lightness of touch, a delicacy in the marks, that makes this abstract composition feel intimate. I wonder what Wiener would make of my paintings? Artists are always in conversation, across time and space, riffing off each other, so to speak.