Horse Riders 1938

Cyprián Majerník made this painting, Horse Riders, probably sometime in the 1930s or 40s, using oil paint. And it's a trip, right? It's all about the materiality – that loose, washy paint, almost like watercolor, but with the heft of oil. Look at how he builds up the forms, not with careful drawing, but with these confident strokes of color. Each dab and dash feels so intuitive, like he's not just depicting horses, but also the very act of painting them. The horses almost seem to dissolve back into the ground, like the edge where a memory meets the present. Notice the earthy palette – browns, creams, muted greens. It's a world of subdued tones, but within that, there's a real vibrancy. The whole painting reminds me a little of Franz Marc, in that same interest in animals and simplified forms. For Majerník, like Marc, it's less about precision, and more about feeling. It's open-ended, a starting point for your own imagination.