Self-Portraits Prepared on the Basis of Self-Portrait Drawings From the Year 1947 and 1948

This series includes Oil Paintings 137, 141, 142, 143, 150 and 152. With the exception of Oil Painting 142, all these works were prepared on the basis of self-portrait drawings from 1947

122 Péter György – Gábor Pataki, “Egy művészi felfogás paradoxona”.[The Paradoxon of an Artistic Approach] In: Péter György, Gábor Pataki, Júlia Szabó and F. István Mészáros, op. cit., p. 26.

and 1948 by magnifying them with the help of a photo mechanic process. After this photographic paper was laid down on the canvas and then painted over.

A Self-Portrait with Hat (Album/ Oil Painting 137), originating from 1983, has a sad atmosphere, but the line of the lips suggests and internal strength and readiness to confront the world. The colour world of the picture brings tension into sadness. The reddish orange field with a dark hue in the right-hand upper corner of the picture is balanced by bluish strip on the left of the face, and this bluish strip contrast with the white and yellow-grey field. Behind the colours of the picture the contrasts between light and shadow prevails well.

Oil Painting No. 137 of the Album

Self-Portrait with a Hat, 1983, oil on photographic paper laid down on canvas, 60 x 48 cm

Pink Self-Portrait (Album/ Oil Painting 141) is the strictly exact, cruel portrayal of a complete collapse and spiritual breakdown, a depiction that verges on self-torment. The forehead and the upper part of the face have a dark tone of red and pink. The eyes are not visible we can only guess their location with the help of two whitish fields, and the mouth and the nose disappeared from the face as a result of which the face is that of a skeleton. The viewer could think that the painter put on a reddish mask. The left-hand side of the picture is divided by two grey and one dark stripes. The yellow of the topmost stripe is broken by a puddle-grey colour as a result of

which it becomes “sickly and insidiously poisonous”.¹²³ “Just as there is but one truth, so there is only one yellow. Adulterated truth is vitiated truth, untruth. So the expressions of diluted yellow are envy, betrayal, falseness, doubt, distrust and unreason.”¹²⁴ The greyish colour of the stripes found below the muddled yellow are in contrast with the more potent colour of the upper part of the face, which could in theory have a pleasant effect. This, however, is not the case, since the face and its red colour reflect madness and a spiritual breakdown.

Oil Painting No. 141 of the Album

Pink Self-Portrait, 1984, oil on photographic paper laid down on canvas, 59 x 49 cm

Self-Portrait With a Straw Hat (Album / Oil Painting 143) is a monument for her own self.

The pleasant yellow of the right-hand upper corner contrasts with the blue on the left-hand part of the coat under the shoulder. The greyish blue of the right-hand side of the huge rimmed hat contrasts with the yellow field behind it. The lighter colours of the background

123 Johannes Itten, op.cit., p. 96. (English edition) The quote in the German original: “etwas Krankes, heimtückisch Giftiges.“ (Johannes Itten, op cit. p. 55.)

124 Johannes Itten, op.cit., p. 132. (English edition) The quote in the German original: “Wie es nur eine Wahrheit gibt, so gibt es nur ein Gelb. Getrübte Wahrheit ist kranke Wahrheit, ist Unwahrheit.

So ist der Ausdruck des getrübten Gelb Neid, Verrat, Falschheit, Zweifel, Misstrauen und Irresein.“

(Johannes Itten, op cit. p. 85.)

In that chapter of the book that deals with quality contrast, i.e., with the contrast between saturated, luminous colours as opposed to blunt, contaminated and broken colours, Johannes Itten explains:

“A color may be diluted with black. This admixture deprives yellow of its brilliant character, turning it into something rather sickly or insidiously poisonous. Its splendor is gone.“ (Johannes Itten, Ibid., p. 96) The quote in the German original: “Eine Farbe kann mit Schwarz gebrochen werden. Gelb verliert dabei seinen strahlend hellen Ausdruckscharakter und bekommt etwas Krankes, heimtückisch Giftiges. Es büßt sofort seine Strahlkraft ein.” (Johannes Itten, op. cit. p.55.)

are in equilibrium with the black stripe at left side of the painting. The contrast of cold and warm colours can be seen not only between the major fields of the painting but, creating lyric colour poetry, also within the individual fields.

Oil Painting No. 143 of the Album

Self-Portrait With a Straw Hat, 1984, oil on photographic paper laid down on canvas, 60 x 48.5 cm

In addition to Oil Painting 137, there is another painting (Album/ Oil Painting 153) titled Self-Portrait with a Hat, originating from 1985, that is based on a drawing in china ink. The slightly tilted image that is based on the original drawing looks like a photo stuck in an album. The colour world of this tilted image is dominated by cold colours and this contrasts with the lighter colours of the background framing. The painting is based on a drawing made in 1948, and the representation of the original china ink drawing also conjures up the contrast of light and shadow. The background suggesting distance and sadness is dominated by blue which is broken by black, greenish grey and greyish white colours. Blue is the colour of sadness (see the phrases

“to have the blues” or “to feel blue”), but we might also remember Johannes Itten’s words:

“When blue is dimmed, it falls into superstition, fear, grief and perdition, but it always points to

the realm of the transcendental.”¹²⁵ Viewing the contrast of blue and black we remember Johannes Itten again: “Blue on black gleams in bright, pure strength. Where black ignorance holds the sway, the blue pure faith shines like a distant light.”¹²⁶ On the canvas that follows the lines of the original china ink drawing the black swirling lines express sorrow and death wish.

The slightly tilted head suggests sadness, a presentiment of death and the acceptance of its un-avoidability. It is not surprising that for the painter a drawing that she made in her youth is just a memory, but the infinite sadness of recollection shows the feeling of the closeness of death.

Oil Painting No. 150 from the Album

Self-Portrait with a Hat, 1985, oil, mixed technique on paper laid down on canvas, 60 x 48.5 cm

Double Self-Portrait (Album/ Oil Painting 152) originating from 1985 shows two heads. On one of the portraits the artist’s face can be clearly recognised, while the other tilted head only suggests the location of the eyes and the mouth. The two portraits conjure up the passing of time, and a profound and resigned sadness over the passing of life. The artist recollects two

125 Johannes Itten, op. cit. p. 136. The quote in the German original: “...trüb wird, sinkt es in Aberglauben, Furcht, Verlorenheit und Trauer, immer aber weist es in das Reich des Übersinnlich-Seelischen, des Transzendenten.” (Johannes Itten, op. cit. p. 88.)

126 Ibid. p.136. The quote in the German original: “Steht Blau auf Schwarz, so leuchtet Blau in heller, reiner Kraft. Wo Unwissenheit, Schwarz, herrscht, da leuchtet das Blau des reinen Glaubens wie ein fernes Licht.“ (Johannes Itten, op. cit. p. 88.)

egos from her youth: the first ego is the self-conscious one relating to the world, the other one is an ego that accepts her loneliness resignedly.

Oil Painting No. 152 from the Album

Double Self-Portrait, oil on photographic paper laid down on canvas, 58 x 42 cm