Master Arthur 1934

This is Master Arthur, by Georges Rouault, painted probably sometime in the first half of the twentieth century using oil or gouache. There's something about the quick, blocky way Rouault painted this – the color slapped down in these discrete areas – that makes me think about the whole process of trying to capture a fleeting image. I love how the red of the central figure just kind of vibrates against the greens and blues. It is like Rouault is trying to make these figures exist in a space but also flatten them into pure color. Check out the figure on the left and see how there is something slightly cartoonish in the slightly awkward geometry of the limbs. It reminds me of how Picasso was messing around with perspective and figuration, or maybe even the boldness and experimentation of someone like Marsden Hartley. Art's always a conversation, right? No answers, just more questions and different ways of seeing.