Motorrider 1928

Sandor Bortnyik made this painting called Motorrider at some point, presumably using oil paints. Look at the flat, almost poster-like application of color and the simplified forms. You can tell that he is interested in how shapes and colors interact. It's like he’s thinking through the image as he goes. There’s something unsettling about the color and the stiffness of the figures. I can't tell what's going on in their heads. They’re like strange machines themselves. The way he uses flat, muted tones and crisp lines gives the painting a feeling of distance and alienation. The cylindrical shape of the motorcycle’s engine, how it sits awkwardly on the frame, perfectly captures that sense of unease. Bortnyik’s work reminds me a little of Leger, with its simplified forms and industrial themes. Both artists were grappling with the modern world and trying to find new ways to represent it. Art is about embracing ambiguity, leaving space for multiple interpretations, and resisting the urge to settle on a single, fixed meaning.