Bela Adalbert Czobel, Akt 

Bela Czobel, a Hungarian artist who spent much of his life in Paris, made this nude drawing, sometime in the early 20th century. Czobel’s work exists at the intersection of many cultural identities. Born Jewish, he lived most of his adult life as an expatriate in Paris, surrounded by a milieu of artists like Matisse, Picasso, and Derain. This drawing reveals the influence of expressionism and fauvism, two movements that were expanding the possibilities for representing the human form. The charcoal rendering has an unfinished quality. There are heavy erasures, but the figure is clearly a woman, her arm placed on her hip, her gaze cast downward. There is a confidence in her pose and although Czobel leaves much of her form open for interpretation, her humanity is at the forefront. The piece asks us to consider the artist’s role in constructing these representations, and to think about the cultural forces that shape our understanding of gender and identity.