Going to Work (1960)

Miklós Somos attended the Academy of Fine Arts between 1951-1957, where his teacher was Géza Fónyi. He participated in national exhibitions from the mid-fifties. His individual style, which Géza Perneczky called lyrical realism, was related to constructivist painting and developed in the early 1960s. His suggestive paintings are characterised by a strong plasticity in relief, a tight structure, closed simplified forms and a reduced use of colour. In his works, landscapes, nudes and portraits, he goes beyond the specific features of reality. His paintings can be compared to those of Jenő Barcsay, Endre Domanovszky and Béla Kondor. In 1963 he also made ceramic paintings in Hódmezővásárhely. In the early seventies his painting was renewed. Instead of gloomy scenes, he painted cubo-surrealistic spaces and still lifes with a colourful palette, and by the 1980s his works had become even more relaxed. 

In his paintings of the early sixties, Somos often evokes everyday working life. He is a faithful painterly chronicler of miners, pickers and bagmen, capturing the typical movements of manual labourers. The picture, Going to Work, presumably shows white-shirted workers from a factory on the outskirts of the city, their faces still tired as they make their way to work in the biting cold for the night shift. Somos uses several light sources at the same time: the moon in the background, the factory's illuminated windows, the glare of the streetcar and the street lamp to help the people to relax in the darkness. The painting shows the influence of Aurél Bernáth and post-Nagybánya painting.