My prior Art posts can be found HERE.
How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it..
Let’s study art history together.
Az Öreg Halász (The Old Fisherman)
| Artist | Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (Chontvary) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1902 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 45 cm x 59.5 cm |
| Location | Ottó Herman Museum, Miskolc, Hungary |
This painting, by a possibly schizophrenic Hungarian painter who signed his work “Chontvary” was relatively obscure for more than a century after it was created. However, after all of that time, someone finally learned its secret and since that cat was let out of the bag, the work has grown quite a bit in fame and notoriety.
The first thing you notice when you see the piece is that the fisherman’s face seems asymmetrical, the lines on his face seem over-emphasized. But on the whole it looks like a stylized version of an old man yo might actually (hypothetically) meet. That said, there’s just something a little unsetting about his face and the unease grows the longer you look at it.
The trick of the piece is that it is essentially three faces in one. The following video explains the piece and I highly recommend watching it to learn the illusion. The secret (Think Mirror) reveals the artist’s message:
