Vajda Lajos Melon Head, 1936, Oli on Carboard, 53,5x47cm 1936

Vajda Lajos painted Melon Head in 1936 with oil on cardboard, and I can only imagine the conversations he was having with himself during the act of painting it. The palette is simple, mostly reds, greens, yellows, and blacks. The face is more of a mask—a solid, smooth plane. This may be a ‘primitive’ approach to representation, but primitive is maybe just another word for ‘essential’. What is required to make a face? Two eyes, a nose, a mouth. The bare necessities. That bold red background is gorgeous! It reminds me of a Sienese painting, like a backdrop for some kind of saint. It’s got this hot, almost burning quality to it. I wonder if he was thinking about his influences at the time? I mean, aren’t we always, as painters, whether consciously or unconsciously, in conversation with the painters who came before? We’re all just borrowing and stealing from each other, hoping to make something new out of something old.