Bortnyik Sándor, Égi Szerelem 1927 

Curator: Sándor Bortnyik’s “Égi Szerelem” invites us to consider the rapidly changing urban landscape of the early 20th century, particularly the artist’s engagement with constructivism and its social implications. Editor: My initial impression is that the painting feels both serene and unsettling. The palette is muted, but the geometric forms below are very angular, almost hostile. Curator: Exactly. The cityscapes, rendered as simplified geometric volumes, reflect Bortnyik’s engagement with the Bauhaus aesthetic, a deliberate attempt to visually restructure the world in alignment with socialist ideals. His goal was to forge a visual culture that aligned with a forward-thinking utopian society. Editor: The flat application of oil paint emphasizes these geometric forms. I think there’s also tension in the placement of the figures, isolated on their raised platform. It’s almost as though the sea isolates the figures from that newly imagined city below. Curator: Certainly. The figures are deliberately elevated, removed, reflecting a potential critique of detachment from this very city being built, or from a lack of connection with material reality as these rapid changes were happening. Consider that he fled Hungary due to his socialist activities. Editor: That makes a lot of sense. I couldn’t decide if the figures floating above the world felt isolating or liberating. What a beautifully enigmatic and contradictory composition of that urban and romantic promise. Curator: Right, this encapsulates so much about that era: its hopes and uncertainties concerning progress and personal relationships against societal change, where people could exist with the new modern forms that emerged from new global industrial advances and utopian aspirations. Editor: A haunting piece, really, capturing a transient moment filled with many tensions we see in that era that also feel incredibly relevant to contemporary urban experiences.