Czóbel Béla Michael Kellerman 1970 1970

Bela Czobel made this portrait of Michael Kellerman using oil sometime around 1970, and right away, I’m drawn to the way he’s built up the image with these short, choppy strokes. You can really feel the energy of the hand moving across the canvas. It’s like he’s not just painting a face, but capturing a fleeting moment. Looking closer, you can see how the paint is both thick and thin in different areas. In the face, there’s this almost scumbled texture, where the colors blend and blur, giving the skin a vibrant, alive quality. But then, in the darker parts of the suit, the paint is more fluid, like he’s letting the colors run together. Take a look at the way the green and purple glints out from the dark blue of the tie - these brief flicks of colour really lift the piece. Czobel's work reminds me a little of early Kirchner or Schmidt-Rottluff. It's this idea of painting as a living, breathing thing, always in process.