Separated 1941

Istvan Farkas made this painting, Separated, sometime before 1944, we don't know exactly when, but the colors are all mixed up, warm browns and oranges mostly, like a sunset, but also a kind of sickness. The paint's applied in layers that feel scrubbed and scratched, like it's been rubbed into the surface, really physical and also, kind of distressed. It makes me wonder about the kind of struggle Farkas might have been feeling when he made it. Look at the mark making on the man's coat – those strokes are so deliberate, but the color is not, and it all builds into this heavy, somber mood. It reminds me a little bit of Paula Modersohn-Becker who used color to create a mood or emotion, and that's what Farkas does here, too. It’s about the ambiguity, the unresolved tension that hangs in the air between the figures, and I guess that's what makes it interesting.