Plant Expansion

Plant 

植物

Artist
WOLS
ヴォルス
Birth Year
1913
Death Year
1951
Date
1947 
Technique, Material, Format
oil on canvas 
Dimension
92.0 x 65.0 cm 
Category
Oil or Other Painting by Foreign Artist 
Inventory Number
88-OF-014 

Could it be a part of a plant, gently meandering upwards as it grows? Black lines like roots extend below, and the epidermis seems to be covered in places with soft hair. Born in Germany, the artist Wols first emerged in Paris in the 1930s as a photographer. However, during World War II, when he spent time in a prison camp, he started focusing on drawings and watercolors, and he also made many oil paintings after the war. The oil paintings were made using a unique technique of spreading thinly mixed paint over a tilted canvas and then scratching lines into it. He died not long after this work was made, at the young age of 38. The richness and tonal range of the paint seem to convey his every breath and every quiver of his hand.
(KATADA Yuko)

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