Czóbel Béla. Kubikusok 1904 1904

Bela Czobel painted these Kubikosok, or navvies, in 1904 using small, soft strokes of oil paint. It’s a scene of outdoor labor, with patches of green and gold beneath a pale blue sky. I can imagine Czobel standing there, brush in hand, trying to capture the figures’ movements in the landscape. What does it feel like to make a painting like this? Is the sky painted first, and the figures added on top? What is it like to see the world in blocks of colour and light? I love the way he’s used blues and yellows to model their forms. He’s got this push and pull between what he sees and what he feels, and he’s letting us into his world. Czobel was working at the turn of the century, when artists like Cézanne were re-thinking the whole enterprise of painting. And that spirit of experimentation, that feeling of the ground shifting, feels alive and well here. I'm inspired.