|
This painting is a representative of a decorative, exceedingly picturesque era in the artist's oeuvre. The place of the action is taken by meditation. Instead of depicting the ephemeral gestures, Klein József stabilizes his models in a timeless infinity. A whole meditative cycle has been painted, of which the Nudes is a typical representative with its resting or daydreaming, motionless feminine figures. The position of the models is artificial, rather unnatural, but it doesn't seem theatrical either. One daydreaming, contemplative figure is shown from the front, the other one from the side, so as her profile can be seen. The artificially structured, emblematic view is ruled by these powerful feminine figures. Light-green and pink contours hold together the slightly coloured composition.
The structure of the theme, the composition makes it obvious, that the painter has been familiar with the neoclassical tendencies, which made their appearance in art between the two world wars. The utterly stylised, idyllic works of the neoclassical artists (who used large bright fields of colours without any nuances) represented the ideal formal model for Klein József when he was working on his meditative cycle.
This picture is interesting from the technical point of view as well. The artist was working on a gypsum white base. Then he projected the figures and the view upon the canvas with the darker and lighter nuances of the white colour. Afterwards the contours were drawn with light greenish blue, barely noticeable pink nuances or light colour stripes. The outlines that were built up this way held together the whole composition. The undefined picturesque nuances of the white are combined this way with the cohesive contours, which define the inner rhythm of the picture.
|
