Sunset 2 1978

Endre Bartos made this painting, Sunset 2, with what looks like generous smears of oil paint. You can feel the process, right? The way one colour bumps up against another, making something new. There is such a physicality to the way he lays down the paint; thick and juicy. Look at the horizontal bands of colour, clashing reds, blues, and yellows, reflecting in the water below. See that circle of red above the trees? The sun, or maybe a memory of one. Notice how that pink in the foreground isn’t really pink, but a mix of reds and whites, dragged across the canvas. It’s these moments, these messy, unresolved areas, where the painting really comes alive for me. There’s something of Milton Avery in this, that same commitment to colour, and reduction. But Bartos has his own thing going on; an honesty, a rawness that makes you feel like you’re right there, in the middle of it all. It's a reminder that art isn't about perfection, but about feeling and seeing in new ways.