Upheaval 1934

Cyprián Majerník made this disquieting painting, Upheaval, with oils on canvas, and you can almost feel the hand of the artist at work. The yellow altar pulsates with an eerie glow, while the priest, caught mid-ceremony, seems to be suffering some kind of existential crisis. The paint is thin, with the canvas showing through. It's as if Majerník wanted to capture not just the scene but the very act of seeing. What was he thinking as he laid down each stroke? I imagine him wrestling with the weight of tradition, the unease of faith, and the absurdity of ritual. Look at the way the figures are rendered: the kneeling congregants, the voyeuristic gaze of the woman to the right – each a small drama unfolding within the larger scene. Painters like Philip Guston come to mind, in the way Majerník embraces the clumsy and awkward, reminding us that art, like faith, is often a messy affair. Majerník invites us to question, to doubt, and to find our own meaning in the spaces between the strokes.