Sonnenuntergang Auf Der Mendel 1919

Albin Egger-Lienz made this painted oil on canvas artwork, Sonnenuntergang Auf Der Mendel, with what looks like a constrained palette and direct mark making. You can see the process right there on the surface. Up close, you can see how the paint is built up in layers, but it’s not trying to be anything other than paint. I find that really exciting. The texture is palpable, not smooth or blended but really thick in the foreground. There's a real contrast with the smooth gradients used to depict the sun piercing through the sky. Look at the lines made by the sun's rays, they’re almost carved out of the darkness. I think of artists like Marsden Hartley when I look at Egger-Lienz. It’s the same idea, you know, that a painting can embrace ambiguity, that it can be both a thing in itself and a window onto another world.