Žena 1936

Mikuláš Galanda made this painting called Žena, or Woman, with decisive strokes of black and red ink that capture something essential. You can feel the artist pushing and pulling the image, simplifying what he sees down to confident lines and bold shapes. The red makes me think of longing, or maybe just a flush. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? What was Galanda thinking about when he made this? Was he trying to capture a specific person, or an idea of womanhood? There's something about the economy of his line, a kind of knowing restraint, that reminds me of Matisse. You can see how artists look at each other’s work, absorbing and transforming. I think Galanda, like all of us, was working it out on the canvas, figuring out his relationship to the world, one brushstroke at a time. And that, my friends, is what keeps us all in conversation.