Zvážanie sena 1905 - 1915

Ľudovít Čordák, who was born in 1865, made this dreamy painting, probably in oil. What I love about this painting is the big triangular mountain, a kind of darkish presence looming over the scene. You can see the brushstrokes, the way Čordák mixes the paint right on the canvas to make these soft, pillowy clouds. I can imagine him standing there, squinting at the sun, trying to capture the light as it hits the hay and the backs of the weary oxen. There is a feeling of stillness, of quiet labor, that comes through in those muted greens and yellows. Čordák was part of a generation of artists who were looking at the landscape in a new way, trying to find a visual language to express their connection to the land, like Courbet. And isn’t that what painting is all about? A conversation across time, an exchange of ideas, each artist building on what came before. We keep trying to say something about being here, in this world, with these bodies, using just paint and a brush.