Bálind István: *Rag with Dog* – Exhibition Opening
These paint-smeared pieces of fabric were forged together by human intent and divine chance, in the light/shadow of indirect consciousness, as they came into being during the creation of another painting.
The choice of colors is deliberate, but it is entirely accidental where and to what extent they land on these discarded scraps of canvas. A paint stain may come into contact with the rag when I wipe my brush, clean the worktable or easel, or dry out the paint container.
As a result, the composition is entirely spontaneous and accidental, free from any pattern, compulsion, or even the slightest possibility of figurative representation. It guarantees unbroken, uncontrolled creative freedom — the most essential condition for bold, inventive associations that bring something new into existence.
In this case, chance plays a strongly determining role — yet, in the right proportion, it remains subtly guided. And it is precisely this quality that allows these paint rags, these “accidental images,” to step forward as works of art.
The central figure of my earlier works — the sitting, generic, pictogram-like dog — has disappeared from the image. Deprived of its safe, geometric environment, it now returns stripped down, in a dramatic scale, to reemerge among the “rags.”
Schedule
Opening by: András Réz, aesthetician
RAG
- Material/Object
- Old, torn, worn-out, unusable clothing or any other deteriorated, worthless object.
- Scrap, rag, fabric piece, shred, remnant, trash.
- Human/Physical state
- Helpless, feeble, pitiful, shabby, wretched.
- Human/Character trait
- Spineless, poser, good-for-nothing, nobody, “rag of a man.”
CHANCE
The unforeseen occurrence of a unique event (or process), commonly understood as something undefined, unpredictable, or irregular.
PAINT RAG
A byproduct of the creative process.
Or is it?
These paint-smeared pieces of fabric were forged together by human intent and divine chance, in the light/shadow of indirect consciousness, as they came into being during the creation of another painting.
The choice of colors is deliberate, but it is entirely accidental where and to what extent they land on these discarded scraps of canvas. A paint stain may come into contact with the rag when I wipe my brush, clean the worktable or easel, or dry out the paint container.
As a result, the composition is entirely spontaneous and accidental, free from any pattern, compulsion, or even the slightest possibility of figurative representation. It guarantees unbroken, uncontrolled creative freedom — the most essential condition for bold, inventive associations that bring something new into existence.
In this case, chance plays a strongly determining role — yet, in the right proportion, it remains subtly guided. And it is precisely this quality that allows these paint rags, these “accidental images,” to step forward as works of art.
The central figure of my earlier works — the sitting, generic, pictogram-like dog — has disappeared from the image. Deprived of its safe, geometric environment, it now returns stripped down, in a dramatic scale, to reemerge among the “rags.”
Rag with Dog
red, blue shabby dog
shred
yellow rag, holey, black green purple,
worn-out
tattered red
cheap
rag life, green fragment
yellow
torn, wretched, good-for-nothing red
scrap, gold red cyan, rag
show-off
yellow purple, grey, black-white, pink
rag
paint rag
blue
shred