The first Hungarian artist to develop a sizeable oeuvre of abstract art, the Transylvanian Mattis-Teutsch may have included this painting in the important exhibition of his work held in the avant-garde “MA” Gallery at Budapest, in November 1918. These were works inflected by a kind of mysticism, the exact nature of which is still unclear, but may have been related to the theosophy and anthroposophy that inspired pioneers of abstraction such as Kandinsky, Kupka and Mondrian. Just what these small groups of crouching human figures are doing in this rainbow-like landscape is uncertain, but its tense meditativeness is not unrelated to some German Expressionist work of the period. This is a major painting from one of the artist’s most important periods, and is the outstanding Mattis-Teutsch work in the Salgo Trust’s extensive collection of works by this Transylvanian avant-garde master. It was purchased by Ambassador Salgo directly from the artist’s grandson in the family home at Brašov, Romania. (OB)
