Hann Ferenc: Paulovics. Kántor Lajos és Kocsis István írásaival (A PMMI kiadványai. Pest Megyei Múzeumok Igazgatósága – Ferenczy Múzeum, Szentendre, 2008)

Hann Ferenc - The artist's career: an overview

nearby, there is a realistic couple of a pensive man and woman in contemporary outfit. This is a principal work because the painter proposes three questions concerning form and the philosophy of art, which will remain crucial for most of his career. First, the problem of Space, symbolized by a door, and, later on by a window, showing the way into a different, sometimes mystical world. Second, his fascination with mythology {aurea aetas, golden age); and, third, combining the previous ones, the everlasting connection and contrast of material Space and inconceivable but perceptible Time. It is necessary to emphasize that Paulovics's oeuvre constitutes an independent and coherent whole, although the artist has moved in many fields and his interest has been manifold. According to his critics,'he walked through virtually all the avant-garde trends of the twentieth century'

(L. K., cit.) from surrealism to pop art. Jenő Mu rád in was right in observing the impact of African masks on Paulovics's art; obviously, African masks influenced most artists who wanted to get detached from the traditional vein of representing the actual scenery, in the early twentieth century. Zoltán Banner mentions Cézanne, Picasso and Róbert Berény; Schileru, art historian from Bucharest adds de Chirico, others refer to Klee, Braque, Dali; Géza Páskándi, a friend who gave names to many works by Paulovics, mentions Henry Moore. I do agree with Páskándi who said that diversity 'is not a problem for Paulovics because he feels that what he wants to say is his own, therefore an impact is not simply an impact because it results in his thorough knowledge of arts.'(L. K„ cit.) This remark, formulated by Páskándi during Paulovics's early period, characterizes the artist's general attitude very exactly. He cannot really be classified into any'ism'(although he knows many); he does not follow any master (but sympathizes with many); his richness of style does not mean a mere imitation of any style. It is rather on the level of the general attitude towards life where we can observe overlaps or interferences with other oeuvres. Let us compare the abovementioned Mythology (1972) with a masterpiece by Erzsébet Schaar, called Street (1974). We see a street with empty walls, wide open windows and doors, where figures stand or are just about stepping out; their faces are real but their bodies are made of smooth, unworked plastic, polystyrene. Life and death, past and present, time and space, palpability and mystery: Mythology and Street are so similar to each other that they may seem to be made by the same hands, and they are surely rooted in the same line of thought although the artists did not even know each other and only two years separate their works. The metaphysical restlessness is evident in many of Paulovics's works, especially in the ones created during his early period. A box hovering in the air, with a mysterious mechanism; an open door, with human figures representing the passing of time {The sign of time, 1976): a Magrittelike composition without dry objectivity. A young girl, in profile, with expressive, delicate fingers that can be seen on Byzantine icons; a man wearing glasses, resting