At The Baltic Sea 1911

Here's Alexej von Jawlensky, probably with oils, at the Baltic Sea. I can only imagine he’s outside, struggling with the wind maybe! Look at that sky—those vertical strokes pull down towards the water. And then the land, if that’s what it is, is practically vibrating with these intense marks of yellow and peach. I wonder if he was wrestling with how to make the invisible visible here? Like, how do you paint air? Or the feeling of wind? There’s something courageous about how awkward the brushstrokes are. But that tree on the left—it anchors the whole thing, doesn’t it? Imagine him standing there, mixing up these unlikely colors, one after the other. It’s like he’s saying, “Yeah, I see what’s already been done, and I’m gonna do something completely different.” That's what painters do. One thing informs the next, like one long conversation.