Ván Hajnalka (szerk.): Bepillantás a kintbe. Kolozsváry-Stupler Éva művészete - Munkácsy Mihály Múzeum Közleményei 9. (Békéscsaba, 2017)
Ván Hajnalka: Bepillatnás a kintbe
24 Gábor Bellák A montage of memories. About Eva Kolosvary The object, the artist and the memories Finding an object is just as creative an artistic act as creating something on the plain canvas or molding it from a rectangular piece of stone. To discover the possibility of art in a thrown- away doll, a used hoover, or in any kind of junk is a real treat to both the artist and the viewer. Since artistic work or creation begins not with a drawn line, or molded material but with the joy of glimpsing and thinking. The artist may not know in advance that an old, thrown-away key, a case of a watch, a rubber duck, or a tiny cupboard will suddenly turn into a work of art in her hands. She may not know, but she must always be receptive and open to this encounter. As if she created a montage: apparently heterogeneous pieces, pictures, newspaper cuttings will just make up a new image. Something we have never thought of. Memories are like elements that have never been used for a montage. When do these memory-scraps fit together into a picture, when does it all find its place? We do not know, but if we are lucky, a picture is formed. Memories of things happened before somehow get together: events, faces, sounds and objects we vaguely remember just come to light, and a picture gets assembled about which we have never thought that it has been living inside us for a long-long time. As the artist does not know in advance what will inspire her to create, the art historian does not know either that among the many artists he meets who will be the one that once becomes more important than the others, and about whom he will have to write something personal. An academic essay, an art historic study or analysis can be written about any artists. However, a personal one can be written only about the person with whom you have some more intimate relationship. Los Angeles, 22 years ago I got acquainted with Eva in March 1995, when we had to survey the bequests of Tibor Jankay, a painter also from Békéscsaba, in Los Angeles. Along with Mária Kozák Szegedi, I indulged in the helpfulness and friendship of Paul and Eva Kolosvary day by day. They waited for us at the airport, and they left Jankay’s studio, house, garage and different stores to us saying that they all should be surveyed. Works of ninety-five years, thousands of paintings and graphics, hundreds of statues, chippings of ceramics damaged by an earthquake, and, naturally, everyday objects of the artist - his clothes and also the personal objects of his much loved wife who had passed away years earlier. We had to touch everything, books and folders; we had to take stock of paintings that had been pressed together for decades, take photos of everything while we were constantly in touch with the caretakers of the bequests, that is Paul and Eva. Eliminating the home of an artist, taking stock of the works and objects we wanted to bring to Hungary, and throwing away the rest was not a thankful task even if I was not lucky enough to know Tibor Jankay. The first reaction of the Kolosvarys was saying thanks as they surely would not have been able to do it. They would not have been strong enough to throw away Tibor’s trousers full of paint, his shoes he had used and worn away during work, and those many valueless, personal things that related to the character of Jankay. During those two months that we spent surveying Tibor Jankay’s bequests, we once realized that we had been talking about Jankay as if he was still living with us. We were
