Czóbel Young Man 1972 1972

This is Bela Czobel’s 1972 painting, Young Man, and it's got a real directness that I love. The colours are striking, teal and red sitting behind this ochre face, like a memory. You can almost see the moment when he made each mark, the brush loaded with paint, dragged and dabbed across the canvas. Look at how he’s built up the face, these almost sculptural strokes of yellow, like he's carving light out of the pigment. Then there's that pink, like a shadow, giving the impression of a loosely knotted tie. It's funny - it feels awkward and tender at the same time. I'm reminded of late Manet. Both artists shared a similar interest in the stuff of paint itself, in the way a mark can be both abstract and descriptive. And in that, they show us that painting isn't just about depicting the world, but about creating a new way of seeing it.