Nodding Artificial Flower (Red Version) 1972

Ilka Gedo created ‘Nodding Artificial Flower (Red Version)’ at an unknown date, using an uncertain medium. The painting of flowers in a square format immediately brings to mind the garden, a motif popular amongst German Expressionists. However, Gedo complicates this association with her title. ‘Artificial’ flowers imply a flattening out of nature, making it a mere commodity. The bold use of red and orange in the background hints at the influence of Expressionist color theory, but this is contradicted by the blue of the flowers, which would be rejected by true Expressionists. Gedo was a Jewish-Hungarian artist whose promising career was curtailed by the Holocaust. After surviving internment in the Budapest Ghetto she was forced to leave Hungary and settle in East Berlin. With more research, including archival records and biographical studies, we can come to understand this artwork in the context of those specific historical and institutional forces.