Danse Macabre 1947

Endre Rozsda made this oil painting, Danse Macabre, using many gestural marks, a rather dark palette, and a light blue background. It has come into being through a shifting of colors and forms, built up through intuition. It makes me think, what must it have been like to make? There’s a lot of back and forth here. It’s a real wrestling match, an open conversation between Rozsda and the canvas. The paint is applied thinly and in layers, so it's not about the physicality of the medium but more about the emotional and intellectual experience. I'm drawn to the white squiggles at the bottom, they're all about feeling, intention, and meaning. This piece is a prime example of Rozsda's signature surrealist style. Like other surrealist painters, he’s interested in the fantastic, the irrational, the stuff of dreams. What a conversation! Painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.