Hills with blue shades 1932

Istvan Nagy painted "Hills with blue shades" with what looks like oil on canvas, and it's all about the expressive quality of the paint. The scene feels very much like it’s emerging from a dark place, and maybe that’s what Nagy was going for. Imagine him wrestling with this image of the landscape, maybe a place he knew well. The surface is alive with his marks, like nervous energy made visible. See how he lays down these blues, one after another, not quite touching, creating an almost rhythmic pattern, like a frozen river? I imagine he’s building the painting in layers, scraping back, and adding more, as he gets closer to his feeling for the scene. It reminds me a little of Guston, with his directness, but also of Hodgkin, in the way colour creates a world of its own. Painters talk to each other through their work, you know? And this one is saying, "Look, I’m working it out as I go along. Let’s figure it out together."