Buddha the Winner 1925

Nicholas Roerich made this painting, "Buddha the Winner," with oil on canvas. The whole painting is worked in a really interesting way with these short, almost rectangular strokes and a limited palette of blues and yellows. It’s like Roerich is building the image, block by block, you know? Which totally changes how you read the space; it’s all fractured and faceted, less about volume and more about surfaces, like you could reach out and touch it, or maybe climb it. Look how the light seems to emanate from Buddha, just radiating out across the water, picking up the edges of these pointy, jagged rocks. Roerich wasn't interested in replicating the surface appearance of things, but he was trying to get at something deeper, like some kind of mystical or spiritual essence. It reminds me of some of Marsden Hartley's paintings, those landscapes, and the way he built up surfaces through touch. Anyway, I like the way Roerich used oil paint to create these planes.