Railwaymen 1930

Tadeusz Makowski, sometime in the early 20th century, conjured these Railwaymen with oil on canvas. I imagine him in the studio, layering those earth tones, building up the figures like little architectural models. The paint isn't super thick, but you can feel the surfaces, that kind of rough, homespun texture. Look at the way those faces are pieced together – blocks of color forming eyes, noses, smiles. What was Makowski thinking when he decided to make these guys so geometric, so solid? There’s a folk art vibe, a naive quality, but there's also something deeply modern about the way he's abstracting the human form. That star on the hat of the central figure, that's such a great touch! It's like a little beacon, drawing you into the painting. You can see how he’s related to other artists who were playing with cubism, trying to break things down and put them back together in new ways. These railwaymen, they stand there, not quite real, but full of feeling.