Képarchitektúra 1922

Lajos Kassak made this painting called Képarchitektúra – which is ‘picture architecture’ in Hungarian. I like that. The painting feels like a bunch of shapes in conversation: squares, rectangles, circles. They're arranged in a playful, thoughtful way with reds, yellows, and dark blues. There's a dynamic, almost architectural feel to it, which is apt, given the name. When he was making it, maybe Kassak was thinking about how to build a picture, you know? How shapes and colors can create a sense of space. It’s not just decoration, it's kind of like he's inventing a new kind of visual language. The blocks of color remind me of the Russian Constructivists. They are all in dialogue, responding to one another, and finding new languages and forms through the process of painting.