Portrait of Countess G. Z. 1931

Here we see Istvan Farkas's "Portrait of Countess G. Z." a work of uncertain date, executed in what appears to be gouache or tempera on paper. The Countess, set against an unsettling ground of solid green, confronts us with an expression of frozen detachment. The painting's composition balances a tension between representation and abstraction. Note how the Countess’s features are rendered with crude, almost caricatured strokes, while her hands, disproportionately large, seem to float independently of her body. Farkas uses a restricted palette, limiting himself to blues, browns, and greens. These colours don’t blend; instead, they create a sense of flatness, and the Countess appears devoid of depth. The tree behind the Countess on the right side, an element that feels both arbitrary and symbolic, emphasizes the precariousness of the figure's existence and disrupts our reading of the painting as a straightforward portrait. This disruption destabilizes the traditional role of portraiture, challenging our assumptions about identity and representation. The artist uses formal means to open the artwork to many interpretations.