Vajda Lajos Önarckép 1936. Ceruza. Kollzs, Papír. 320x255 1936

This is Vajda Lajos's self-portrait from 1936, a pencil and collage work on paper. The grey of the background feels like a sombre mood. The way Lajos used collage here is so interesting. It is a sort of layering of the self, of the mind, and all its dark thoughts. The skull and crossbones floating where a brain should be! It’s like he’s saying, "Hey, I'm here, but so is this other stuff, this darkness. It's part of me, too." I’m reminded of the work of Paul Klee, in the sense of its graphic simplicity and the way it handles line. Both artists use deceptively simple lines to convey a world of meaning, where the personal and the symbolic intertwine. It's like the art is saying, "Look closer, there's more than meets the eye." And isn't that the truth about all of us?