Cold Day 

Rudolf Bér captured this 50 by 70 cm oil on canvas, titled "Cold Day". The painting confronts us with a stark, snow-covered scene. Bér uses a restricted palette: the somber grays and whites are pierced by the ochre yellows and muted greens of the buildings and distant hill. The horizon line is high, compressing the composition. The paint is applied thickly in some areas, creating a tactile quality that draws the eye. The composition seems to ask: what is the relationship between representation and abstraction? We recognize the image as a landscape, yet Bér's reduction of forms teeters on the edge of abstraction. The perspective is flattened, emphasizing the surface of the canvas. This tension between illusion and materiality, representation and abstraction, is where the painting’s conceptual and formal complexities reside.