Endless Blueness - Infinite Deepness

Anita Kántor. Untitled (Blue Brushwork). 2011, 200x140

Anita Kántor’s huge canvas is untitled, which opens up the possibility of free associations. Owing to its size and the worn-out surface, it resembles flaking frescos or faded Antique wall paintings. The artist scratched and scrubbed the thick layers of paint over and over and applied a great variety of materials, such as oil, acrylic, tempera, pastels and pencils to the painting.

Since the inner space of the painting seems to stretch well over its frames, it is like a cut from a larger picture. The five figures walking away and seen from behind are schematic and sexless, and their age is not specified either. Therefore, the painting itself also becomes timeless; it never gets outdated.

The figures are moving away with their heads and shoulders hanging down until finally they disappear in the ethereal blueness that surrounds them like a fog. Since there is no horizon, one cannot perceive a ”sky” or a ”landscape” either. Therefore, one needs to disregard previous experiences and general expectations concerning paintings while examining this picture. Although one normally associates the color blue with the sky or with water, in this case there might be a different “clue” to the painting. In my opinion, the blue of the background is rather symbolic in its tone, as it recalls Picasso’s Blue Period both through the implied sorrow and the depression of the characters and through the melancholy and grief the color implies. However, the shade used by Kántor is less gloomy and has a rather comforting effect.

The almost monochrome, floating background enhances the feeling of infinite space and eternity also implied by the fact that the painting bears no frames, which is made even more intensive by the concentric spirals made through scrubbing the surface. Since there is no horizon or any other point of orientation, one can detect references to motions and to spatial relations only through the changes in the figures’ sizes and the darkening of their earthy colors.

Looking at the figures’ similar contours and the series of silhouettes they form, one can even conclude that there are only two people in the picture, fading into the distance. Therefore, the depiction of movements and the progress of time seem to play an even more important role in this picture than it would seem at first sight. However, this artistic approach is not without antecedents either, as it appears in the well-known painting The Golden Stairs by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones as well as in Italian Futurist works.

Nevertheless, if these are silhouettes of more than two people, they still do not comprise a group: due to their similar silhouettes and the lack of almost any connections between them, this picture depicts an immeasurably deep loneliness and resignation that is further magnified by the yawning void in the center.

Anna Voelgyi