Composition 1925

Janos Mattis-Teutsch made this ‘Composition’ with oil on canvas, carefully building up the planes of color in a pale, muted palette. I imagine Mattis-Teutsch, brush in hand, feeling his way through this composition, shifting forms, intuitively coaxing these pinkish shapes into being, like figures caught in a dance. The dark background acts as a foil to the rounded organic shapes and geometric forms, as if he’s orchestrating a play between structure and fluidity. I notice the thinly applied paint, which gives the canvas a cool, almost distant feel. Those flat planes of color create an almost architectural feeling, like an interior space, stage set, or a meeting place for bodies. In this way it reminds me of the paintings of Fernand Léger, which also tried to capture the dynamism of modern life, and of course the Romanian avant-garde milieu of the time. We see how artists like Mattis-Teutsch were really engaged in a visual conversation, responding to and building upon each other’s ideas, experimenting with new ways of seeing and representing the world.