View of Selemecbánya 1902

Tivadar Kosztka Csontvary gave us this view of Selemecbánya, a landscape shifting from dense greens and browns to sun-drenched yellows. The houses in the valley look like they're huddling together for warmth or maybe conversation. I imagine Csontvary standing on that hilltop, feeling the wind and the vastness, trying to wrangle this enormous scene onto a canvas. The painting is a process of layering and building, not just of paint but of feeling, of experience. Look at those figures in the foreground, they're like notes in a song, each one carefully placed to give the composition rhythm and meaning. There's something hauntingly naive about the way Csontvary approaches painting, a desire to see and capture the essence of a scene, which reminds me of outsider art, with its unmediated and raw vision. You can feel that in the way the light drapes across the hills, not quite real but emotionally true. It’s a reminder that painting is so much more than just representation, it’s a way of thinking, feeling, and being in the world.