Composition (Attitudes) 1930

This painting is by Janos Mattis-Teutsch, it's called Composition (Attitudes), and I see it as a set of carefully considered choices. The flat planes and limited palette makes me think about process. Mattis-Teutsch has applied the paint evenly. The opacity is really interesting, it has an almost graphic feel to it. The artist is playing with the relationship between foreground and background, pushing our attention to the surface and our perception of space. I love the way the blue shapes sort of float on the inky black backdrop. It’s interesting to note how the bodies are rendered, as it looks like he used just a few simple lines to construct each of the figures. It reminds me of some of Leger’s paintings from the same period. What I love about both artists is the ambiguity, the open-ended quality, and the invitation to explore our own emotional and intellectual responses.