Kmetty Colourful Landscape 1930

Curator: The first thing I notice is the bold color! I want to run through that golden field. There's almost a playful element, like a stage set. Editor: Indeed! Kmetty János painted this piece, entitled "Colourful Landscape", around 1930. Look how he builds up this panorama with vivid oil paint on canvas, using a plein-air technique. There’s a definite pull towards Fauvism in the approach to color and Expressionism in the form. Curator: Absolutely. And it’s the sky, that vertical rain-like application of pigment, that really captures my imagination. It brings an element of melancholy to an otherwise joyful landscape. Like looking into a childhood memory—part happiness, part that lingering, indefinable sadness. Editor: I see how you read that! For me, the insistent verticals and the bold juxtaposition of warm foreground and cool background suggest something about nature’s order—the structured, man-made world pressing up against the undulating rhythm of hills and fields. See how the house mirrors the planes in the field, a sign of rural harmony, perhaps. Curator: Harmony, sure, but also a kind of tension, don’t you think? Look at the color choices in the trees, deep blues against lighter greens and yellows, almost competing. The colors evoke conflict while forming pleasing masses. Like two lovers in the throes of an argument. Editor: A lover's spat amidst a landscape rendered with unusual zeal! And there we have, in microcosm, something of the 20th-century experience reflected, wouldn't you agree? Thank you, J., for lending us a fresh angle. Curator: And thank you, M. It’s a conversation this landscape begged us to have.