Dream (1930s?)

György (Frankel) Almár graduated as an architect from the József University of Technology in Budapest in 1920, after serving three years in the First World War. He then went on a study trip to Berlin, where he worked and studied in Bruno Paul's office, while supporting himself by painting. Here he was introduced to modern architecture, interior design and fine arts. After returning to Budapest, he spent two years in the architectural office of Paul Ligeti, where he remained in contact with modern aspirations. 

His design work was characterised by a concern for the unity of interior space and the home, as taught by his master Bruno Paul. In this spirit, he placed particular emphasis on the sophisticated and functional design and furnishing of the small, inexpensive home. In 1927 he presented his interior designs at an exhibition at the Mentor bookshop. He was one of the founders of the Hungarian Workshop Association. Almár was a highly respected representative of Hungarian Art Deco. His works are linked to international trends by drawing on the achievements of the European avant-garde, especially Bauhaus and Constructivism. His work is characterised by a love of new, modern materials, glass and steel, and a search for harmony, order and calm through geometry. In addition to his work as a designer, he is also a prolific writer on contemporary interior design, with a wealth of illustrations, plans and interiors that introduce the reader to new principles of home design. 

Despite all this, Almár considered painting to be his most important activity. He painted from his early years, sometimes as a living, sometimes as a supplement to his design work. This is presumably what led him to develop his fascination with colour. His earlier figurative compositions gradually shifted towards abstraction in the 1960s. In his paintings, as in his landscapes, he considered composition to be the most important task, and in this connection he expresses his entire oeuvre: 'Colours and forms, in themselves and in their relationship to each other, evoke a feeling in man, like the rhythmic combination of individual notes and tones in music'. His individual and characteristic palette, his slightly grotesque imagination, is distinctive, but he has really found himself in cosmic landscapes. These landscapes cannot be categorised anywhere, their only artistic marker being their extremely rich colourism. They are not like landscapes, they are not terrestrial. For George Almár, the light, the colour of the material, is the world that emerges. In the painting Dream, an almost psychedelic world appears with mushrooms, heart colours and differences in size.