Kardang 1933

Nicholas Roerich made Kardang, using tempera, maybe, to create a very particular image. The mountain range is built up with discrete marks, lines almost, which assemble into these jagged peaks. The colours are muted, but the artist contrasts the purple, brown and blue of the mountains with the flat golden background. Look at how the line varies, particularly on the contours of the mountains. On the left-hand side, the mountain edge is defined by a thick golden line, that at times fades to nothing. On the right, the peaks dissolve into the background, the white of the snow merging with the gold, giving the sense of a loss of definition, of a world that is uncertain and in flux. I see a lot of Milton Avery here, a similar interest in landscape, and an understanding of how colour and line can construct form, but also give a sense of dissolving perception.