Muž s knírkem 1915

Editor: This is "Man with a Moustache" by Josef Capek, painted in 1915 using oil paint. It's strikingly geometric and, honestly, a bit unsettling. What do you make of it? Curator: Unsettling is a good word for it. This portrait is like a visual puzzle, isn't it? Capek, steeped in both Cubism and Expressionism, utilizes simplified shapes—the triangle for the nose, circles and slits for the eyes—to create a face, yet it’s a face that feels deliberately deconstructed. Editor: It's hard to connect with. I almost see it more as a symbol of a man than a true likeness. Curator: Exactly! Capek is digging beneath surface appearances. Notice the colours – the muted palette. What do they suggest to you in terms of the man’s character or state of mind? Editor: Somberness, maybe? A sense of weariness? Curator: Precisely. These aren't joyous colours; they evoke a certain heaviness, perhaps reflecting the anxieties of the pre-war period. This is a face stripped down to its basic elements, almost like an archetype rather than an individual. He represents Everyman facing some sort of existential crisis. The moustache almost seems a mocking, old fashioned virility sign. Editor: So the geometrical forms and muted tones are working together to convey more than just a visual representation? Curator: Absolutely. They become symbols themselves. A geometrical prison almost. We read that image as being very human, but, rendered as lines and shapes, it transforms and speaks in symbolic shorthand. It invites us to consider what it means to be human and individual. It questions memory of cultural identity during wartime. Editor: That’s fascinating. I'll definitely look at other portraits differently now. Curator: It shows us that even in what seems like abstraction, profound meaning resides and collective ideas are at play.