Czóbel Béla Művész Reggeliző Asztal, 1920 1920

Bela Czobel, born in 1883, painted this piece with oil paints around 1920, and it feels like a total immersion in process. The way he attacks the canvas feels urgent, like he's trying to capture a fleeting moment. Look how the colours are laid down in these thick, juicy strokes, especially in the tablecloth, where blues and whites clash and blend, making it almost vibrate. There's this tension between representation and abstraction. You can make out the objects on the table, the tree looming over, but they're all rendered with such expressive, almost violent, brushwork. The dark, almost black marks defining the tree feel raw, like a charcoal sketch beneath the colour. The whole thing has a restless energy. It reminds me of some of the Fauvist painters, like Vlaminck, who weren't afraid to let their emotions spill out onto the canvas. It's like Czobel is saying that painting is as much about feeling as it is about seeing, a conversation still going on today.