A Romani artist in Hungary reclaims his identity

The painting on the canvas is of a man playing chess with a robot. The color on his face is still damp and glistening. Norbert Olah was working into the early hours: The Bura Galeria in Budapest has been his studio all summer. He finds it easiest to concentrate at night, when the Hungarian capital gradually falls silent. Olah has taped foil and cardboard over the tiled floor at the back of the gallery. Pots of brushes, tubes of paint, pencil sketches, and, over and over again, pictures that include the blue-and-green Roma flag line the room. Norbert Olah is an artist. He's also Romani. For a long time, he deliberately left this part of his identity out of his art.