Marta Ehrlich
Paris, 1938
tempera on paper
433 x 573 mm
MG-4713

There were very few women painters in Croatia between the two World Wars. The artistic culture was largely defined by a “male gaze,” to borrow Laura Mulvey’s term, which she used in 1973 to describe commercial film, historically shaped by heterosexual men for their own viewing pleasure. The extent to which Erlich’s artistic work can be understood in this context remains for future researchers, but it is clear that her time in Paris had a lasting impact. While the so-called Paris School of the 1930s, characterised by a pluralism of realistic painting approaches – ranging from various post-impressionist to surrealist styles – was already losing its influence, it still left a deep trace in Marta Ehrlich’s work. This trace can most succinctly be described as the concept of freedom. Specifically, during the interwar period, the Zagreb art and pedagogical scene placed a strong emphasis on discipline in drawing and colour. Any departure from local style or rigid composition was discouraged. In this work, as well as all the other paintings created in Paris, Marta Ehrlich turns to a different form of painting. Squares enclosed by palaces, full of trees and passers-by, capture her attention. She typically depicts them from above; tree trunks lose their volume and mass, becoming simple lines painted with a brush, along with branches, while the leaves are depicted as a series of colourful smudges, devoid of clear outlines. The trees seamlessly merge with building façades, creating a sense of fluidity that – consistent with post-impressionist tendencies – seems to shimmer in the air.

Text: Klaudio Štefančić, senior curator of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb