Nieuwjaarswens van Kornél Révész 1938

This etching, a New Year's greeting by Kornél Révész, crafted in 1938, delivers a complex message through loaded symbols. We see an old man, presumably representing the outgoing year, clinging desperately to a globe marked with "Európa", his grip coinciding ominously with 1939. The globe itself serves as a poignant symbol here, reminiscent of Atlas bearing the weight of the world, now burdened with the looming shadow of war. The hourglass behind him, with the year marked, suggests time running out, an end of an era. Note his desperate embrace, a subconscious expression of the collective anxiety of a world on the brink. We observe similar symbolic gestures throughout art history; consider the motif of the danse macabre, reflecting the human psyche grappling with mortality. Here, Révész taps into this primal fear, using the aging figure and the dying year as a vehicle to express the widespread dread and uncertainty, a psychological landscape as potent as any battlefield. The hourglass is an ever-present symbol, its non-linear progression a constant reminder of time's passage, and the shifting nature of peace.