Czóbel Béla Kockás Pulover 1973 1973

Bela Czobel painted "Kockás Pulover" in 1973, probably with oils, and you can almost smell them, can't you? I can imagine the painting emerging, stroke by stroke, a back and forth between intention and accident. Looking at the sitter's face, I wonder what Czobel was thinking. Is it a memory, an invention, a face that shifted and changed as he painted? Maybe he put down that gorgeous, saturated red, then the white strokes, then decided he didn't like it and reworked it, again and again. Painting is such a conversation; the way that white sits on top of the red is gorgeous—bold! You can see the texture of the paint, how it catches the light. It's like he's wrestling with form, trying to pin it down but letting it breathe at the same time. Painters have always looked at each other’s work, riffing, and stealing ideas. It's all about the dialogue across time, and it's never-ending. Like life.