Na popravu 1930s

Cyprián Majerník made this watercolor, *Na popravu*, on paper. The sepia tones immediately speak to me of looking back through time, like a faded photograph of a dark historical moment. Majerník’s muted palette works so well to create this rather somber and still scene. The figures on horseback are mirrored on either side of a group of people, and the sketch-like application of the brown wash lends itself to a feeling of precarity or the unsaid. The figures become outlines, not quite there, but not quite gone. I want to pay attention to the washes in the sky and how these echo down into the ground. The emotional weight of the piece sits with this tension between what is seen, and what is felt. I'm reminded of Francisco Goya and his series *The Disasters of War*, which similarly explored the horrors of conflict and its impact on the human psyche. Like Goya, Majerník uses art to confront difficult truths, inviting viewers to reflect on the darker aspects of human history.