Akt s knihou 1920 - 1930

Mikuláš Galanda made this drawing, Akt s knihou, with charcoal or graphite on paper. The subtle gradations give volume to the figure who’s caught in a moment of quiet repose, absorbed in her reading. I imagine Galanda’s hand moving across the paper, sensitive to the weight and pressure of the material. There’s a vulnerability in the figure’s posture, her face hidden, her body soft and yielding. It's as though Galanda is looking for some universal quality, something about the interiority of women and their relationship to knowledge. Galanda had this ongoing conversation with modernism, filtered through his own cultural lens. You can see the influence of artists like Picasso and Matisse, but there’s also something distinctly Galanda’s – a kind of melancholy and nostalgia for a simpler way of life, something so many artists of his time were feeling. Making art is all about being in dialogue with those who came before us, while trying to find your own voice in the mix.