Vajda Lajos Világitó Szempár 1939, Szén Papír, 73x707,8cm 1939

Lajos Vajda made this drawing, with charcoal on paper, in 1939. There’s something raw and immediate about the marks, like a visual record of the artist’s thinking. The lines are densely packed, creating these rich, almost velvety dark areas, but then there are these moments where the paper peeks through. It must have been such a physical process, almost like sculpting with charcoal, pushing and pulling the material to create form. I can almost feel Vajda’s presence, hovering over the paper, making one mark after another. There’s an intensity here, but also a kind of searching. The 'eyes' look like they are searching, too. And he’s in conversation with artists who came before him, like the Surrealists, but he is also doing something entirely his own. Artists are always riffing off each other, picking up ideas, and pushing them in new directions. Painting isn’t about having all the answers but about embracing the unknown and finding meaning through the act of creation.