Sarkadi-Schuller, Leo (1879-1947)

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Sarkadi relocated first to London and then, in 1914, to the US. His artistic life began as a dramatist, writing one-act plays that spanned his time in both countries: Within Four Walls (1900), Children at Play (1907), The Line of Life (1916), The Gusher (1928), Fourflusher (1928), and The Angel (1929). One published collection of these plays, however, features illustrations that may be Sarkadi’s and would indicate a longstanding interest in the visual arts, although his painting career dates to the early 1930s. He also exhibited sculptures on more than one occasion, showing himself to be a multitalented artist. Sarkadi’s paintings were shown at the Balzac Gallery, Ainslie Galleries, and the American Artists Congress. His friend Willy Pogany, a fellow artist from Hungary, wrote how “it is strange that a man so saturated with transcendental philosophy antagonistic to matter, should take up painting as a means of expression...But with Sarkadi the process is different....Color attracts him just as much as form is evaded, and here we find that his instinctive choice of vehicle for the mysticism and yearning for limitless space is more than justified by the result” (New York Sun 10 May 1924: 6). 3 works at the Brooklyn Museum. 12 more images at FAP.

Works in the New Deal Collection at GVCA by Leo Sarkadi-Schuller:

Featured
Chinese Jar
Chinese Jar

A striking composition is achieved with very few objects: the painting’s eponymous vase, a few flowers and blooming limbs, a goldfish bowl, and two paintings. Carefully outlined shapes play against a scattering of colors applied thickly—even three-dimensionally—to the canvas. A branch traces the meandering line between a vivid goldfish in the bowl and equally bright flowers held by the jar. The painting at left creates a window upon some outdoor scene.

Edge of the Garden
Edge of the Garden

At least two questions are implied by this painting’s title: which edge of the garden, and what is a garden? Due to a flattened plane and Sarkadi’s composition we see a row of hollyhocks and other tall flowers at the bottom of the canvas, with no indication of what lies between them and us; nor can we see what lies between them and houses further in the distance. A dense line of forest forms a backdrop to the homes, whose intriguing colors and patterns echo those of the flowers. Overhead, a tall tree on the forest’s “other” edge and a hint of blue sky.

Vase of Tulips
Vase of Tulips

A photograph doesn’t do justice to Sarkadi’s deft use of color and texture upon his paper medium. Were the painting’s few splashes of white removed, we would see three stems of tulip, along with a bit of greenery, in a glass jar set inside of a bowl. The splashes do not add depth to the painting but rather prevent a tidiness that elsewhere is rejected in favor of speckled shadows and reflections, unfilled sketch lines, and (through the years) paper that has itself become wrinkled.

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