Girl Icon 1936

Vajda Lajos made this work, Girl Icon, sometime in the middle of the 20th century using pastel and gouache. I just love the way that Lajos approaches image-making; it seems very process-led, and intuitive, almost like a form of automatic drawing. What’s great about this piece is the tension between its graphic simplicity and the depth of feeling that those simple marks evoke. The slightly smudged pastel gives it a kind of hazy, dreamlike quality, like an icon that's been smudged with repeated touch. I like the way the composition almost feels as if it's a series of separate geometric forms, and you get the sense that Lajos is working from a set of parameters, a series of rules. There’s something of Klee in this work, in the symbolic use of color, but Lajos' work feels rawer, maybe more honest. Art's like a conversation, you know, everyone talks to each other! Ultimately, the impact of a piece like this lies in the way it welcomes different interpretations, in the space it creates for ambiguity and wonder.