Sugovica river in Mourning 1979

Endre Bartos made this painting of the Sugovica River with bold strokes of thick paint, somewhere in the last decades of the twentieth century. The canvas is a riot of colour – oranges, purples, blues and pinks compete for attention. Look at how those black tree trunks cut through the composition, anchoring the eye. I imagine Bartos, layering paint, scraping it back, maybe even attacking the canvas with a palette knife. It feels like he's searching for something, a way to capture the feeling of loss, of the river in mourning. I can see him wrestling with the colours, trying to find the right combination to express this melancholic mood. He is in dialogue with the Fauves or German Expressionists, who were equally fascinated by how colour can carry emotion. Those vertical marks at the bottom right corner, are they trees or a fence? They are like the bars of a gate, or musical notation, waiting to be read. Ultimately, it is a conversation with other painters across time, all trying to capture something elusive and unsaid about life, death, and the world around us.