Bela Czobel, Screen with Straw 

Editor: This mixed-media work is entitled "Screen with Straw" by Béla Czóbel. It has a kind of warm, fuzzy feeling to it with the reddish hues and muted yellows. I’m curious to know, what story do you think it tells? Curator: Ah, yes, it's quite an evocative piece, isn't it? It feels to me like a half-remembered dream, shimmering with a sense of… longing, perhaps. I find myself drawn to the way the 'screen'—if that's indeed what it is—becomes a veil, both revealing and obscuring the space behind it. Is it a screen offering privacy or hinting at something tantalizing just beyond our reach? I wonder, does the straw texture evoke the earth for you? A raw, grounded sensation contrasted against the abstract, ethereal quality of the colours? Editor: I never considered the earth aspect with the straw texture; more that it softens the geometric patterns and stops them feeling so rigid, as straw often bends organically. But what exactly is it? Curator: Well, that's the beauty of it, isn’t it? Perhaps it’s less about what *it is* and more about what it *evokes* in us. To me, the abstraction dances with the familiar… that circle… is it the sun, a face, a halo? And those x marks... are they kisses, stitches, hidden symbols? Editor: Hidden symbols is a great way to describe them; they seem out of place somehow, but tie it together nonetheless! I feel I learn something new every time I look. Curator: Indeed, art is like that, isn't it? A mirror reflecting not just what’s there, but what’s within *us*. Every viewing unveils a fresh layer, a new conversation, and more questions emerge! It is lovely to see that a humble painting on “Screen with Straw” gives that sense to us!