| Artist | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1989 |
| Object type | painting |
| Medium, technique | canvas, oil |
| Dimensions | 250 × 180 cm |
| Inventory number | MM90.26 |
| Collection | Contemporary Collection |
| On view | Hungarian National Gallery Building D, Third Floor, Shifts – 20th Century art after 1945 |
In László Fehér’s œuvre, periods rich with colour and periods with reduced colours alternate with each other. In the mid-1970s, he made his debut with photorealistic works, then later, his palette got more colourful and he depicted themes determined by his family and religious affinities at first objectively and later, more emotionally and expressively.
1988 marks a turn: his colour realm was reduced to three colours: yellow, black and white, his pictures featuring a single figure each, usually drawn with white outlines only. “I know I was in for something new and I could say more with these two colours, black and yellow, than with a lot of colours,” confessed the artist.
Looking into the Well is among the first works of this period. The lonely transparent figure marked by the outline is dwarfed next to the yellow well-curb, almost lost in the enormous dark background. Like a frozen moment, the composition alludes to the transiency of our presence in the relative eternity of the material and natural world.
Zsuzsa Jobbágyi
Radványi, Orsolya (ed.), Remekművek: Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2020/5, Szépművészeti Múzeum – Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest, 2020.
This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.
