Béla Czóbel , Still Life with Book 1960 

Béla Czóbel painted "Still Life with Book" in 1960 using oil on canvas. The painting presents a jumble of everyday objects: fruit on a plate, a book, and other unidentifiable items. Czóbel was Hungarian but like many other artists, he spent long periods of his career living and working in Paris. There, he associated with artists who were part of the Fauvist movement, which emphasized strong colours and painterly qualities. The cultural and intellectual ferment of Paris in the early 20th century created a space in which artists were able to experiment with new ways of seeing and representing the world, freeing themselves from the constraints of academic tradition. One can see the influence of movements like Fauvism in Czobel's vibrant colors and flattened perspective. By using archival documents and biographical sources, historians of art can shed light on the social, cultural and intellectual networks that sustained artists like Czóbel, helping us to better understand the radical shifts in artistic practice that took place during this period.