Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Márta KOVALOVSZKY: Unfinished Process
and continuing into the infinite ( Elrendeződés [Arrangement], 197 Átrendeződés [Rearrangement], 1977). Their rhythm, and the harsh play of light and shade on their surface, presaged the folded structures of the years to come. The vital force behind these works, reminiscent of an accordion or the bellows of an old camera, is the special tension generated between the fundamentally soft material of textiles and the geometrically severe structure ( Moduláció [Modulation], 1977; Nyitott folyamat [Ongoing process], 1977; Rétegek [Layers], 1979). Térnégyzet [Space square] (1979) represented the synthesis - and at the same time the limit - of a subtle and disciplined approach based on serious and logical thinking and vision: with canvas squares suspended in space, Szilvitzky "demonstrated" the work to be done, but the structure had to be created in the mind of the viewer. This was an extreme point, from which she then set off on a long road in another direction: in the early 1980s she found her place in the area of New Painting. A path parallel to hers, but without the strict geometry, was that of Aranka Hühner. Through the technique of pleating, well known to dressmakers, she swept into regions of unfettered imagination, a kind of poetry. Like a woman's petticoats as she walks along, the undulating, constantly-changing movement of the geometric structure gives rise to curious, almost musical passages, shapes reminiscent of scales and sequences, permitting her to fill the space with complex and divergent compositions. (Fig. 3) Szilvitzky had previously been interested - since 1977 - in materials close to textile, such as paper, seeking new ways of creating form: in one three-layer composition of paper of different colours and qualities, 1 0 tears in the paper sheets revealed the layers un2. Lujza Gecser Hidak [Bridges], 1975 (detail) Braided sisal, 200 x 300 x 200 cm Savaria Museum, Szombathely derneath, penetrating the internal structure of the material. She was not alone in this fascination for material. Aranka Hübner's exploration of silk, Judit Droppa's observation of the behaviour of knitted textures, and Gabriella Farkas' use of plastic tubes as yarn for weaving and pleating were also attempts to push out the envelope of the classical textile art form, questioning basic values which had stood unchanged for centuries. The most radical textile-material questions, however, were put by Gábor Attalai. He proved the most sensitive among any of the great textile generation towards current developments, and the quickest to react to the events of life and the currents of art. He designed furniture material, and made idiosyncratic red-y-made (sic!) objects whose name (and colour) were a witty 157
