Combate 1946

Gunther Gerzso made this painting, Combate, with oil on canvas, and right away I'm drawn to how the colors almost blend into one another, like figures emerging from a dream. Looking at the surface, you can see how the paint is applied in layers, some areas thick and textured, others thin and almost transparent. It's like he's building up the image, not just depicting it. Take a look at the central figure. See how the shapes are defined with these heavy, almost sculptural lines? It reminds me of some of Picasso's cubist paintings. It's this process of layering and construction that really gets me thinking about how we see the world. Gerzso’s paintings weren't based on reality. They came from within, and he looked to create a world within the painting, a world of his own. You see this with the way forms and colors blur, everything appears to be shifting and changing. Just like the way we remember things, right? It's like Gerzso is reminding us that art, like memory, is never fixed.