Christopher Alexander on Nolde’s Sunset

“If we look at a sunset, we have all seen one; what more basic, more primitive response is there, than to dip the brush in yellow, scrawl yellow, yellow, yellow, all over the central sun? But who would dare to do it? It would have taken enormous daring to be so absurdly basic. And then to do that hard work after being so basic, to fill in the painting, make the crimson, the blues, the grays, and the white light on the boat in just the right place, by obeying, following that most primitive instinct without inhibition, doing the most obvious thing, most directly.”

Emil Nolde: Sonnenuntergang (Sunset)

Christopher Alexander – The Nature of Order – Book 4: The Luminous Ground