Composition (1972)

Kamill Major graduated from the Pécs High School of Art, then participated in the work of the creative circle organised around Ferenc Lantos from the mid-sixties. He played a significant role in the creation of the Bonyhád Enamel Art Symposium in 1968. He applied to the College of Applied Arts, but was rejected both times, and became an active member of the Studio of Young Artists in 1970. 

In the first period of Major's career, he combined the Hungarian constructivist tradition with the neo-avant-garde informel and hard edge tendencies, as well as folk art, as some Hungarian artists (Imre Bak, Fajó, János, Ilona Keserü or István Nádler) did at the same time. His works from around 1970 are typically decorative symmetrical compositions consisting of large homogeneous fields of colour. At the same time - under the influence of Endre Bálint - he also made collages using photographs. Composition (1972) is part of a series of Major's hard-edge paintings, which he painted in Hungary. Beyond this, the acrylic painting has a spectacular Hungarian aspect, as its colours recall the national tricolour, while its motif is a further stylization of the tulip motif, well-known from ethnographic objects. This motif is repeated three times side by side, the difference being in the colour combinations.

In 1972 Major emigrated to Paris via Vienna. In the French capital, he was welcomed by the Hungarian artistic community in exile, and met Judit Reigl, Vera Székely, Simon Hantai and Jean-Pierre Yvaral, among others, who were already living abroad.