Scheublein Fine Art AG, Schloss Sihlberg, Sihlberg 10, CH- 8002 Zürich,www.scheubleinfineart.com
PRESS RELEASE
BUDAPEST TALES
Sándor Szász, Csaba Kis Róka, Zsolt Bodoni, Gábor Pintér, Eszter Szabó,
Attila Szűcs
Scheublein Fine Art presents a selection of six young artists from Budapest who are
dealing with the experience of the fundamental social changes after the downfall of
communism in Hungary in 1989. In a country where for many decades freedom of art
was oppressed and culture was dictated by the state authorities a new generation of
artists are explicitely reflecting on the past and the aftermath of the oppression in their
country.
In the early 1990s very few galleries began to showcase contemporary art and
gradually institutions such as „Műcsarnok“ (Kunsthalle), „Ernst Múzeum“ and
„Ludwig Múzeum“ were contributing a major impact towards the international
exchange in contemporary art. In the past decade galleries such as Kisterem, ACB,
Deàk Erika, Vintage, Dovin and Viltin have been regularily participating at art fairs
around the world to introduce Hungarian art to an international audience. Budapest
has also launched an art fair called „Art Market“and a Hungarian version of „Flash Art“
is pushing the international discourse on contemporary art on the spotlight. Very few
Hungarian artists as for example Dóra Maurer, Attila Csörgő and Roza el-Hassan have
gained international attention and were lately shown at Documenta (13) as well as
various biennials around the globe. Hungarian private collectors have taken up the
initiative to support artists by offering them free studios and building up creative
spaces such as the studio units at „Kecske utca“ and at „Art Factory“. As opposed to
the contemporary art booms in Eastern European countries such as Poland and
Romania (Cluj) the Budapest art scene is widely unknown and with its strong potential
yet to be discovered. „Budapest Tales“ is the result and a small excerpt of a one year
research project through galleries and artists studios in Budapest by the curators Nora
Gogl and Georg Bak with a focus on figurative and narrative painting.
Born and brought up in the Hungarian part of Transylvania (Romania) and currently
living in Budapest, Sándor Szász (*1976) is painting apocalyptic underwater scenes
where eerie creatures are meandering like ghosts in Atlantis. The artist comes in terms
with his traumatic past at a small village named Bezidou Nou which was deliberately
flooded during the Ceaucescu Regime in order to force the people to move out of the
villages towards the cities. The artist is creating an underwater myth quite similar to
Plato’s „Atlantis“ or the African „Drexciya“.
The orgiastic and brutal scenes in Csaba Kis Róka’s (*1981) paintings bring in mind
the link to the engraving cycle „Desastres de la Guerra“ by Francisco de Goya. The
artist is questioning the male supremacy in most western societies by depicting
gruesome battles and orgies among macho-type bearded protagonists and animal-like
creatures. Despite the seemingly boundless violence in his pictures the work titles
quite often reveal an ironic and almost burlesque humor.
Scheublein Fine Art AG, Schloss Sihlberg, Sihlberg 10, CH- 8002 Zürich, www.scheubleinfineart.com
Zsolt Bodoni (*1975) combines a varied vocabulary of historically charged symbols of
power such as war machines, submarines and excerpts from propaganda movies by
Leni Riefenstal. His paintings are dealing with the role of physical education and even
childhood games and sport activities as tools of power that inculcate in young minds a
mentality of group conformity and discipline. By revisiting the past the artist is trying
to understand how various ideologies and systems of control are originated.
Gábor Pintér’s (*1983) paintings quite often derive from postcards which he utilizes
as a starting point in order to compose funny and ironic pictures similar to Martin
Kippenberger. His expressive paintings illustrate everyday tasks such as watching
television and cleaning up the kitchen in an excessively dramatic manner.
By painting filigree gouaches on latex Eszter Szabó (*1979) is portraying her fellow
mates imagining them how they would possibly look like in 2053 wearing the clothes
and accessoires which have been fashionable in their youth. According to current
demographic studies the European population will age in the upcoming decades and
the awkward looking old people wearing baseball caps, tattoos and piercing on their
body and flashy sunglasses might as well become reality quite soon.
In his latest series „Planking“ Attila Szűcs (*1967) is capturing people in horizontal
positions as if they were lying. Interestingly the artist has started painting his first
„Planking“ pictures some years before „Planking“ became a worldwide phenomenon
and was spread through internet and all other media. The artist is rather interested in
the compositional element than in the content of his pictures. Nevertheless one
believes to identify the features of the current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán planking on
two gas tanks in one of his paintings.
Opening Reception: 22 February 2013, 6 – 9 pm
Location: Limmatstrasse 275, 8005 Zürich
Opening hours: 23 February – 30 March 2013
Tuesday – Saturday, 11 am – 5 pm and by
appointment
For further information and press enquiries please contact: +41 43 888 55 10 or
info@scheubleinfineart.com