Vajda Lajos Cave Grave, 1938, Pencil on Indian Ink on Paper, 45,6x87,6cm 1938

Vajda Lajos made this, Cave Grave, in 1938 with pencil and Indian ink on paper. Looking at it, I can imagine him, maybe at a table, moving between the sharpness of the pencil and the fluidity of the ink, pushing and pulling the composition across this tan page. It feels like a dance between representation and abstraction, doesn’t it? I’m seeing organic shapes that hint at figures or faces, but they are broken up and reassembled. The textures created by the pencil – a cross-hatching technique – give the work a tactile quality. I wonder what Lajos was thinking about as he combined these disparate elements into a cohesive whole, with some of the markings almost like hieroglyphs. You know, it reminds me a little of Klee’s work, that playful but serious experimentation with form and symbol. I bet he was inspired by other artists to create this enigmatic scene – it gives me shivers. Artists are always in conversation, borrowing and riffing off each other, don’t you think? And here we are, years later, still trying to figure it out, and maybe in the process, discovering something about ourselves, too.