European school, ca. 1940's.

European School, ca. 1940's.
"Prisoner singing".
Oil on jute canvas.
Measurements: 162 x 82 cm. 170 x 90 cm. (frame).

A prisoner with shaved head and wearing the typical prison costume with blue and white stripes, sings exaggeratedly opening his mouth. Behind the small window, set in a thick brick wall, a red flag flies.
The painter is inspired by Art Deco aesthetics, in vogue in the twenties and thirties in the most avant-garde circles. He tends to reduce each element to its geometric essentiality: the dark mouth forming a circle, the iron ball tied to its foot, etc. It can also be related to the German line linked to the New Objectivity of Dix and Grosz.