Vajda Lajos Fotómontázs Cinóber Alapon 1933, Fotómontázs, 37,2x38,5cm 1933

Vajda Lajos made this photomontage on a cinnabar ground in 1933, playing with found images to make something new. The whole act of collage is a process, of course, a dialogue between chance and control. It’s all surface here, isn’t it? Cut edges against flat red ground. The texture comes from the layering and the contrast between the photographic images. Look at the way he juxtaposes the grainy textures of the architectural blocks with the smooth, almost ethereal quality of the figures. There is a small, disembodied head floating to the left side. It is hardly visible but suggests the scale of the image and adds to the overall sense of disquiet. Like Hannah Hoch before him, and maybe someone like David Salle after, Vajda is making us think about how images collide and collude to create meaning, but never quite resolve into one fixed point.