Bird's-Eye View

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This tiny gouache (opaque watercolor) by the German artist Wols is one of the latest and most abstract paintings that Albert Barnes collected. Irregular peach- and cream-colored areas form a vertical central motif, stitched together by fine lines of black ink. Some of these lines are short and regular, like the teeth of a zipper; others are longer and chaotic. Bird's-Eye View is an example of art informel , a genre of abstract, postwar European painting defined by a gestural technique and improvisatory methodology. But Wols's deliberate composition and delicate detail attest that this painting was not truly spontaneous: these features invite meditative looking, recalling the artist's statement that "the dimensions of the human hand are holy."

Source ↗