Man with Hat and Woman with Black Scarf 1915

Lajos Gulacsy made this painting, Man with Hat and Woman with Black Scarf, with oil paints. The painting is all earthy browns and reds, applied with energetic brushstrokes that give it a kind of restless surface. I can imagine Gulacsy, lost in thought, layering these strokes, one on top of the other, slowly building up these figures. There’s this one spot, just above the woman's scarf, where the paint seems to swirl, like a little vortex pulling me into the scene. It’s as if Gulacsy was searching for something, maybe a feeling, and the painting became a way to find it. The way the paint is handled here reminds me of some of the early expressionists, like Kirchner, who were also trying to capture inner states through raw, gestural marks. Ultimately, painting is an ongoing conversation, artists responding to and building upon each other’s ideas. We all pass down, back and forth. It makes the art world go round!