Brown Picture
- Artist: Ferdinand Kulmer
- Date: 1960
- Medium: Oil paint and tempera on canvas
- Dimensions: frame: 1465 x 985 x 28 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the "Brown Picture" by Ferdinand Kulmer. Painted in 1960 in Croatia, then Yugoslavia, it sits at the edge of gestural abstraction. Kulmer was part of a generation that mixed free sweeping brush strokes with a link to reality. In this canvas the surface is heavily worked, almost sculptural, reacting to the ‘climate of the forest’. The thick, uneven layers of oil and tempera give the painting a textured, almost tactile feel—there are glossy patches, wrinkled where paint dried faster, and matte swaths pulled with a thick brush. The artist said his work must always suggest space or a figure, and here you can see hints of foliage, earth, and even the sky as an “aerial hole” in the dense matter. It was shown in 1961 in an exhibition that highlighted Yugoslavia’s independent political stance during the Cold War. Enjoy the texture and the subtle, forest‑like atmosphere.
See it in person
Brown Picture is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
