Abstract Landscape 1915 - 1916

Henry Lyman Sayen made this Abstract Landscape, we don't know when, and most likely with oil paint. The whole thing is built with crisp, bold marks, and the colors are laid on thick. It's like he's figured out how to render a feeling of landscape, rather than representing a landscape. I love the texture of the paint and how it's worked. Like the long black shape on the right, for example. It has a clear edge but is roughly applied, it has a real physical presence as a shape made of paint. And the marks and gestures that make up the landscape—how do they change how we see the world? There's something here that reminds me of Arthur Dove, who was doing his own thing around the same time. Both artists were digging into something very new. They show us how painting can be this endless conversation of ideas across time.