Back To The 20th Century With Art, Part II.

Yesterday I showed you a part of the paintings I saw at the art gallery, all of them from the 20th century. Most of the artists, if not all, are not among us anymore, so these artworks have a different value now. Coming from a different century, these paintings are different from what it is created today.

Samuel Mützner - Self Portrait At The Easel - 1923

How interesting the human mind works. I saw this painting and the first thing I thought of was life at the beginning of the 20th century, when nobles and the wealthy had plenty of time on their hands to do what they pleased. They were often reading all day, listening to music, playing cards, taking long walks, participating at picnics etc. I thought this man is painting to pass time and the lady in the background, nicely dressed, is reading.

Then I saw this is a self portrait and that changed everything. There's a chance this poor man was painting in order to earn a living. How many painters were struggling all their lives, trying to get recognition and get paid but most of them could barely make ends meet. Then became very famous post mortem.

What I liked about this painting is that resembles a lot a drawing and that's not a bad thing at all.

Oszkár Nagy - Seated Nude In The Studio - 1936

Sándor Ziffer - The Canal Of The Mill - 1944

Scenes like this still exist in some European countries, like France and Italy for example. Back in those days mills were extremely important as grain had to be ground and as there was no electricity, water mills were the solution, or windmills, like in the Netherlands. Some of those old mills are now on high demand, sold at high prices and transformed into luxury villas or museums.

Sándor Ziffer - Self Portrait With The Reformed Of Church Maia Mare In The Background - 1941

Sándor Ziffer - The Reformed Church Of Maia Mare
Sándor Ziffer - Blue Self Portrait - 1925

Don't ask me why, but the self portrait reminded me of Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes. He must have had a photo taken in this position or I remember him thinking in this position in the series. I tried to search for the photo but could not find it. Maybe it doesn't even exist. Let me know if you think this painting looks like Jonny Lee Miller.

Oszkár Nagy - View Of Maia Mare - 1936

What I liked about this painting, besides the nice color is the texture of the canvas. Most likely the thickness and the softness of the canvas counts a lot when painting and possibly fine, soft quality canvas is preferred more, but for me, this rough canvas looks great.

Antónia Csikós - Valea Rosie In Winter - 1937

This painting reminded me of those days, when we were kids and spent a part of our winter holiday at our grandparents. Winters were tough back then, there was always snow that covered the village completely. Nice memories and long gone times as nowadays we barely have snow.

Endre Litteczky - Snowy Town

This one was lovely as well. Maybe I would prefer a different frame, but that's not a problem.

Laura Mándy - Landscape From Baia Mare - 1920s

One thing I had to realize while looking at these paintings is the advantage of having a gray wall. Most of the galleries I go to, have white walls. Some of them are not really galleries, just rooms hosting exhibitions. Now you may think white is good as it's neutral and does not attract the eye, but look at this gray. I like it way better than white to be honest.

Sára Kahán - View Of Baia Mare

József Klein - Asphalt Pavers - 1928-1932

This was a very interesting and expressive one. Imagine how roads are made today, how asphalt is poured today and compare that process with the work you see on the painting, that was almost 100 years ago. To be honest, I was a bit surprised to see such a theme as artists are usually oriented towards beauty, but looking back after almost 100 years, I find this valuable.

Ipolit Sarbu - In The Sun - 1928

Yeah, ladies used to wear hats, to avoid sunburn.

Béla Balla - Women At The Bodi Lake In Baia Sprie - 1949

This is another valuable one from many points of view and I liked it. If you're not familiar with those times and don't recognize what those ladies are doing, they are washing clothes. Electricity came in much later, tap water as well, so washing clothes was done by the river, manually. Thank God I wasn't born back then.

I liked this exhibition quite a lot. It took you back to the previous century and showed you what life was like back then and how people lived.

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