Lights and Shadows 1947

Tihamer Gyarmathy's painting, aptly titled 'Lights and Shadows', seems to emerge from the darkness. It is a space where shapes flicker and glow. I imagine Gyarmathy making this, layering forms and colors, probably over a long period of time. It’s almost like a jazz composition, forms and patterns, like musical notes, floating in a dense atmosphere. The palette is rich and deep, with reds, blues, and yellows peeking out from a black background. There is a central dark mass, which the other colours are swirling around, each colour vying for our attention. The eye is drawn to the top right corner, where there is what looks like a tree on a hill. You can almost hear the jazz, in a smoky underground bar. Gyarmathy’s painting feels like a conversation with other abstract painters, each contributing to a larger, ongoing dialogue about form, color, and expression. Painting is a continuous, evolving thing, which is always being redefined.