Nieuwjaarswens van Ella 1932

Kornél Révész made this New Year's greeting for Ella using etching, a printmaking process, and you can really see the hand of the artist at work. It’s all about the line here, a kind of frenetic, scribbly energy. Look at how the marks create form, especially in the figure of the child with their bag. The ink is dense enough to give the character weight, yet there is a sense of lightness. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the plate, each stroke purposeful. There's a really playful, almost irreverent, spirit. The scene is quite simple, but the marks give it so much vitality. I’m reminded of artists like Guston, or even Cy Twombly. What Révész shares with them is a similar kind of joy in the physical act of mark-making, in art as a conversation between the artist and the medium. It’s not about perfection, but about expression.