Vajda Lajos Szentendrei Házak Csonka Toronnyal 1936 1936

Vajda Lajos made this drawing, Szentendrei Házak Csonka Toronnyal, in 1936 with ink on paper – it’s a landscape, but a flattened one, with a church tower looming over the houses. I like the way it captures the essence of a place with minimal lines. You can almost feel Lajos standing there, trying to capture the soul of the village. What was he thinking about as he drew each line? The simplicity reminds me of folk art, but there's something modern in the composition too. The bare paper becomes the sky, the houses rendered as basic geometric forms. It’s like he’s stripping away the excess to get to the core of what makes a home, a community. We artists all do this, in our own way, searching for the real thing, the essence of an idea.