Béla Czóbel , Women with Read Hat 1972 

Béla Czóbel painted ‘Women with Red Hat’ in 1972, using oil on canvas. Czóbel was a Hungarian artist and this work, made late in his career, reflects a lifetime of navigating the currents of European modernism. The loosely defined figure, seemingly emerging from a haze of browns and greens, recalls the expressionist styles that dominated the early twentieth century. While Czóbel had been associated with avant-garde movements in Paris before the First World War, after the Second World War, he was part of a generation looking back to the radical experiments of previous decades, re-interpreting them in the light of new social and political contexts. The red hat of the painting's title could also be seen as a knowing reference to the Fauvist paintings of Henri Matisse, whose bold colour and simplified forms had scandalised the art establishment decades earlier. To fully understand Czóbel's position, we might want to explore the archives of the art market, exhibition catalogues, and the writings of contemporary critics. These resources could shed light on the complex institutional forces that shape the meaning and value of art.