The Snack Bar (1930)
by Edward Burra
This brightly colourful painting with the jovial, rotund characters preoccupied with food caught my eye, first hanging in a friend's brand new kitchen and then later on, I deliberately sought it out at the Tate Gallery. It depicts an everyday encounter between two people at a snack bar. The man works at the snack bar and looks like he is absently slicing a ham, and a woman customer gazes distractedly into space while heartily consuming her sandwich.
I thought the somewhat comic and exaggerated appearance of these characters lent themselves to more expressive, dramatic gestures. This made the painting suitable for use in a word-less story, with all the action taking place without the use of words. Who is this woman and who is this man, and what happened before and after their banal encounter at the snack bar?