The building of the summer casino in Kecskemét 1913

Curator: Here we have Kmetty János's "The Building of the Summer Casino in Kecskemét," painted in 1913 using oil paints. What strikes you initially about this work? Editor: Immediately, there's this odd sense of a fractured paradise. The colours are vibrant, almost feverish, but the sharp angles and the way the building is obscured creates a kind of visual tension, an uneasy calm. Curator: The painting's structure mirrors this unease. You see the very visible brushstrokes and the way Kmetty applies the paint, the labour of creation is quite palpable. And the distorted forms are very much within the early Expressionist vocabulary, reacting to rapid industrial and social changes. It highlights a break from academic conventions and the impact of new technologies in shaping a new artistic expression. Editor: The fracturing you mention makes me think about fragmented memory. Summer casinos were sites of social gatherings, often linked to aspiration. By distorting that, the artist speaks to the potential for decay and dislocation of communities and cultures. Notice how even the trees have almost an anthropomorphic, reaching quality, like figures straining toward something just out of grasp? Curator: Absolutely. And that reach perhaps speaks to something inherent in Expressionism - the striving for meaning and authenticity amidst upheaval. The use of oil paints allows for those layers and textures, which amplify the sense of material struggle. Kecskemét was developing rapidly at the time, which inevitably involved social cost and tensions in ways which echo through today's development and consumerism. Editor: There is a sense of yearning but also of foreboding woven into this cityscape. We get a clear impression of progress through this modern construction, though the darker trunks cast long, foreboding shadows. The summer casino becomes a signifier for societal shifts, not only celebratory leisure. Curator: The perspective is distorted but yet reveals the labour of creation, of construction but maybe the instability of meaning, it captures this transitional moment for Kecskemét. I wonder, too, what a more recent perspective may read from this today? Editor: Indeed, revisiting this image allows us to examine symbols we project onto the cultural landscapes from the past. And the dialogue continues...