Hommage - Tribute // Exhibition of Ilona Keserű
The exhibition emphasises the gesture of homage. The oeuvre is also extremely rich in the sense that it pays tribute to important masters, colleagues, theorists and poets in the form of a single painting. "Throughout my work, my ambition is to be a continuation of our great predecessors, the Masters, whom we so much respected, questioned and listened to when we were young. It was precisely because of the handicap of publicity that we needed those meetings and conversations in the sixties, when we could go to Dezső Korniss, for example, who was making his epoch-making illuminations [...] and we all knew that we were witnessing the birth of great art."[1] At the same time, the artist is constantly reflecting on his own earlier work, returning to motifs, forms, colour combinations and schools of thought.
Schedule
The exhibition is divided into three sections. In the first room, there are images that can be associated with homage, i.e. reflections on the figures, work and influence of masters, spiritual friends and relatives. These works are mainly large-scale paintings and portraits painted, drawn and inked. In the second room, there is a sound installation entitled Sound-Scene-Space, which the artist created in collaboration with the composer László Vidovszky. In the third room, we will exhibit paintings that are a kind of monument to the artist's own work. These are paintings and graphic works, which are newer and newer reworkings of a motif, a theme, a scene, such as the Szuszek Studies, the Message series, the individual sheets and paintings of the Forming Space, or works that explore the problem of the Afterimage. The selection in this room is intended to show how self-reflection, commitment to one's own artistic personality and work, and consciously assuming one's role as an artist are revealed in a life's work. "Belonging to a profession is something that is slowly built up in one's mind - that I am a painter, that I will be a painter - one understands that we are talking about an activity that is thousands of years old, belonging to a particular branch of humanity, which has not changed much in essence over time. And many people who are involved in artistic creation don't have that awareness." [2]
Mária Kondor-Szilágyi PhD, curator of the exhibition
[1] Aknai, Tamás (2000).
[2] Forgács (1994). Forgács, The stolen moment, Ars Longa series, Jelenkor Publishing House, Pécs, 337-338.
Kunsthalle Budapest
The largest exhibition hall in Budapest, in Heroes Square, just the opposite the Museum of Fine Arts.