Cosmic space (1960s)

Csernus' painting took a turn after his 1957 study trip to Paris. After becoming familiar with the modern trends between the two world wars, he was particularly impressed by Surrealism and Max Ernst. Csernus then became preoccupied with a kind of natural mysticism. A whole company of painters formed after his return to Hungary. Hungarian critics subsequently called them surnaturalists, because they created paintings made up of naturalistically painted details, variously mutilated or distorted, and surreal in their overall effect. In their works, photographically realistic details were interspersed with surreal, amorphous details. Csernus's oil composition Cosmic Space was probably painted at the end of his surnaturalist period, as indicated by the fact that he has less and less support for the viewer, and that the realistic forms in the picture are only visible through imagination, almost completely abstract.