Evening Closes

This is the sombre mood of late autumn. All the colours have drained out in the dusk. The mood is determined by the monotonous green colours, the composition, and the rhythm of long brushstrokes, while the excited movement of the black trees and bushes expresses the anticipation of dramatic empathy. The contrast of light and dark patches, and the rhythm of dark contours, are most significant in the composition, as they anticipate tension and imminent drama.

Text author Nijolė Tumėnienė

Art critics found Max Band’s paintings sombre. The French critic N. Frank wrote: ‘It was in cosmopolitan Paris that Max Band became even more Jewish. His characteristic feature is sadness. Even his flowers bloom sadly. The rain of sadness sprinkles his works, his landscapes, his portraits’ (1939, Review, 24:7). Having mastered the sfumato painting technique (from Italian fumo for ‘fog’, sfumato for ‘disappearing’), whereby colours and tones are so subtly combined that it is difficult to distinguish where one colour or tone changes into another, Band created a particularly melancholic and lyrical mood. Litvak melancholy persisted in the work of artists during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The landscape Encroaching Evening by Augustinas Savickas, and works by Adomas Jacovskis, became symbols of sadness.

Text author Vilma Gradinskaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė, STORIES OF LITVAK ART (2023). Compiler and author Vilma Gradinskaitė
© LATGA, Vilnius 2024

This is the sombre mood of late autumn. All the colours have drained out in the dusk. The mood is determined by the monotonous green colours, the composition, and the rhythm of long brushstrokes, while the excited movement of the black trees and bushes expresses the anticipation of dramatic empathy. The contrast of light and dark patches, and the rhythm of dark contours, are most significant in the composition, as they anticipate tension and imminent drama.

Text author Nijolė Tumėnienė

Art critics found Max Band’s paintings sombre. The French critic N. Frank wrote: ‘It was in cosmopolitan Paris that Max Band became even more Jewish. His characteristic feature is sadness. Even his flowers bloom sadly. The rain of sadness sprinkles his works, his landscapes, his portraits’ (1939, Review, 24:7). Having mastered the sfumato painting technique (from Italian fumo for ‘fog’, sfumato for ‘disappearing’), whereby colours and tones are so subtly combined that it is difficult to distinguish where one colour or tone changes into another, Band created a particularly melancholic and lyrical mood. Litvak melancholy persisted in the work of artists during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The landscape Encroaching Evening by Augustinas Savickas, and works by Adomas Jacovskis, became symbols of sadness.

Text author Vilma Gradinskaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė, STORIES OF LITVAK ART (2023). Compiler and author Vilma Gradinskaitė
© LATGA, Vilnius 2024