Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Márta KOVALOVSZKY: Unfinished Process
5. Zsuzsa Szenes Huzat [Cover], 1976 Wool, different objects, c. 150 x 150 x 150 cm Erdély, Tibor Hajas and Tamás Szentjóby; and understood that the imaginary wall which had divided art and crafts for long centuries had finally been broken down. But she also conveyed that a way of thinking close to hers was also being followed by others, in a diversity of forms; it was signalled by some pieces by Aranka Hiibner (Nemzetközi nőnap [International Women's Day], 1976) and Szabó Marianne ( Boszorkánykesztyű [Witch's Glove], 1976), and others from contemporary exhibitions by Csilla Kelecsényi, Margit Szilvitzky, Anna Szilasi and Sándor Tóth. By the mid-seventies, the major changes in Hungarian textiles were largely complete. Joining the pioneers, the great generation of the "living textile" 1 4 there appeared a younger, talented generation which soon found its own directions, whose in many respects different, more puritanical tendencies in construction and analysis added a new momentum. But the pioneers themselves also had the courage to leave the territories they had conquered: when it started to become too homely, too perfect, a textile-paradise, they were suddenly no longer present. Around 1974-1975, the textile field drew apart, the two generations matured together and their activities joined up like a chain. The "war of independence" of the preceding years had secured a new situation: the conduct, thinking and momentum of young artists was no longer burdened by the problems of a struggle for the art form's independent existence and adulthood, and they could carry on their predecessors' work freely, and with new energy. They inherited the courage to question and the adventurous spirit of seeking new paths, and with conscious curiosity set out towards new territories. The forms of textile sculpture, which had been discovered by Irén Balázs and Marianne Szabó, were not directly explored any further; the problem of the textile occupying space, however, prompted some artists to lively experimentation. In her large-scale work Hidak [Bridges], 1976, 1 5 Lujza Gecser, plaiting and braiding sisal fibres of varying thickness, created a construction branching into space, linking together distant points in the space. The combination of strictly-calculated structure and freelyhanging plaits generated a simultaneously loose and taut character of hanging jungle bridges and lianas weaving among the depths between the trees. She achieved more than a composition spanning the space and ruling the dimensions, she pointed up the flexible nature of space, its playful balance between tension and calm. (Fig. 6) And she went further: she suspended black 160
