Girls feeding birds (1930)

Decorative painting is an essential element of Judit Beck's early paintings. 'Reassessing the motif placement, one can discover Rippl-Ronai, the Gödöllő Artists' Group, but most of all a Japanese painting influence filtering through to Europe at the turn of the century', writes Margit Kiss Joakim. The Japanese method of painting is characterised by a planar, stylised style of representation, special colours and lines, asymmetry and the promotion of feminine beauty. Beck captures the chasing dance of the young girls and the birds by using complementary colours (blue-purple, red, yellow) in addition to their dynamic, contrasting movements.