On March 18, 2019, the exhibition of the painter Zsolt Malasits entitled Magic opened in the event hall on the 2nd floor of the Károly Kisfaludy Library of the Győr library (9021 Győr, Baross Gábor út 4.)
University professor Dr. János Rechnitzer not only spoke about the exhibiting artist and his works at the opening of the exhibition, but also - as befits a true art collector - provided information on the state of Hungarian fine art today, and even gave advice on the desirable management of artists and art using various modern communication systems.
"There is no need to introduce Zsolt Malasits to the Győr audience. We can meet the artist and his works every day, his former gallery and permanent exhibition space was an important meeting point for artists and art lovers.
Born in our city in 1961, the artist completed his studies in Finland, then returned to Győr, and has been creating and working here ever since. His individual and group exhibitions are not easy to count, perhaps he knows that exactly. He is actively present in the art communities that manage and present artists living in Győr, and has organized several exciting, innovative art events. Thanks to his international connections, he often travels to other European countries, where he has successfully exhibited.
Malasitsi's oeuvre - as we can call it - is versatile, but at the same time consistent. The artist calls his style "modern realism" in one of his writings. He strives to represent reality abstractly with classical forms of representation, such as figurality, consistent use of symbols, or even references to 20th century classics, with paraphrases inspired by them.
The depicted figures are structures rather than plastic bodies, they often face the viewer, their faces are reminiscent of masks, or they are highly schematized. They hide, they hide from the recipient, they do not want or cannot reveal their individuality.
In the present exhibition, we meet a multitude of figures hiding behind masks. The artist indicates their distinction with symbols, such as the beloved ship, which may represent travel, the fish, which is believed to represent freedom, the pleasure provided by the currents, or the often present moon, which may refer to a distant, secret world.
Esoteric, mysterious and mystical worlds are not far from the artist either, as the depiction of stars, constellations, and planets can presumably refer to the mysterious Fate or its development and the search for its secrets. Among the works, I find those in which the city and public spaces appear to be exciting. Their crowding can be felt in these works. The people who appear in the spaces are lonely, or even if there are several of them, they appear far from each other, which suggests a lack of connection, but we can find in them the emptying of spaces, the dehumanization of urban systems.
The artist's color scheme is consistent, unique, unique to him. This brownish, yellowish, reddish color combination is special, it stands out spectacularly from the common black background, thus making the representation mystical and suspicious. For me, the rarely appearing blues enliven the figures, make the works more lively and fresh, counterpoint the secrets, guide the eye and the thinking to uncover them.
It is not easy today - probably not even in the past - for artists who live physically far from the art center (capital) and its core in our small country to gain recognition, recognition, and professional success.
In Albert-László Barabási's latest book, Képlet (Libri, 2018), he devotes a separate chapter (pages 57-74) to artistic achievement and success. He researches the reasons for success in the fine arts (the author himself is an art collector, so the intellectual depth of his analyzes is also shaped by his hobby), and more specifically in artistic expression. The author analyzes at length the artistic success of the world's great artists. Based on his analysis, he gives the solution that it is necessary to exhibit in the right place, in mainstream galleries, museums, and festivals, and to be constantly present, so that collectors, galleries, collection curators, and directors discover the artist, and his presence and reception become more and more natural and precise. Once the artist has entered the circle, they will no longer let him go: the institutions and instruments will hold him and maintain him.
He also brings up an interesting example of the case of Barabási, a Transylvanian painter who settled back in the countryside, but who, although he had talent, could not meaningfully get involved in the art scene. Therefore, he did not become successful, he could not break into those circles with his works, where the necessary system of promotion and maintenance, and then appreciation, operates both in the dimension of collectors, galleries and art institutions.
It is regrettable to see that the Hungarian art life is strongly attracted to Budapest, and within it some galleries and exhibition spaces, which cannot or do not want to look out from their own circles (sometimes from their district), accept and manage artists living in other places, especially in the "countryside". But it is also unfortunate that in a Hungarian metropolis with a population of 100,000, where incomes are significantly higher than the national average, there are no private or community galleries either. There are no institutions that manage talented local artists and help them develop and introduce them to the domestic and international art world. We are thinking here of the organization of exhibitions, the publication of publications, presentations at art fairs, the operation of Internet interfaces, and the use of various communication systems. It must be emphasized - and this is often experienced as a misunderstanding in the art world - that this is not the task of public art institutions. With the cooperation of artistic communities, as well as local governments, businesses, collectors, and art lovers, a network of independent local exhibition spaces and their managing professionals can be created, which can help in the slow dismantling of this centralized world order.
The "lights of magic" - referring to the title of the exhibition - will only illuminate artistic environments if we do something about it locally (in the countryside), and this exhibition can be a station in this not easy and long-lasting process. But the lights are already on, let's help them not to go out, but to shine more and more vividly, directing attention to the innovative artists living in our city and their works."
The exhibiting creator then invited the beloved artist of the Győr National Theatre, Zoltán Csankó, to the microphone and asked him to interpret Sándor Márai's piece Mágia.
Magic, in terms of its original meaning, is a set of superstitious actions performed under the influence of natural phenomena, a system, sorcery, deception. Looking at the art of Zsolt Malasits and the message of the exhibition, however, we have to think about something else. Here, the creator is thinking about the state of mind and inspiration created during the creative process itself, when consciousness does not play the main role, but a "different state" in which the work is born. According to him, he himself often marvels at his completed works, as he thinks he discovers messages in them that he did not even think about when the work was born. The reason for this is that during the creative process the work takes on an independent life: it partly shapes itself. It also conveys messages to the viewer that the artist may not have consciously thought about while creating. This is the essence of the "magic" inherent in the art of Zsolt Malasits.
Zsolt Malasits thanked the contribution of these outstanding personalities with his own painted granite sculptures, and delighted the visitors of the exhibition - which was attended by a large number of other well-known and distinguished personalities of Győr's cultural and artistic life - with the wines of the Ács Winery in Pannonhalm.
I hope that the excellent atmosphere of the opening ceremony is faithfully reflected in the photos I took there.
The exhibition can be viewed until April 10, on weekdays between 1 pm and 4 pm.
György Molnár is an art lover