Muladi Brigitta - Veszprémi Nóra szerk.: A festmény ideje – Az újraértelmezett hagyomány (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai)

English texts - Introduction: The Time of Realism. Brigitta Muladi

Introduction The Time of Realism Brigitta Muladi In the light of the "realistic events" of the 20th century and its often overlapping trends - naturalism, Neue Sachlichkeit, magic realism, metaphysical realism, photographic realism, hyperralism, "millennial realism," etc. - it seems self-evident that painterly realism and figurativeness are still meaningful directions. The desire to represent reality in painting cannot be tied to a single epoch or genre, even though it is commonly considered a phenomenon of the 19th century, what with Courbet's Realist Manifesto (1855) - the first assertion of the style - and Manet's activity as its logical sequel. The popularity of realism has been uninterrupted for a very long time. It has widespread appeal because it is in an accessible form that it invites the viewer to consider what art is, and establishes a link between the aesthetic of everyday reality and the aesthetic of painting (art). There is nothing new in realism, it has been around since antiquity. Yet, even a look at the painting of recent decades will expose several, distinct varieties. The essays of art historians Sándor Hornyik and Gábor Rieder, and the "side notes" of painter Gábor Lajta, originally written for a conference in December 2006, attempt to define these brands and outline their history. The most curious characteristic of the realisms is that behind the trivial formal order and the accessible appearance there is always additional meaning which either makes them art or, on the contrary, removes them from the realm of "autonomous art" (if, for example, they serve representation or ornamentation). At the present exhibition, the additional meaning that accompanies realism is a sense of tradition that is defined by personal, subjective relations; surprisingly, to reveal it is the task not of the contemporary work, but of a classic from the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery that accompanies it. We formed the pairs in reverse order: the "model" was found when the contemporary piece was already finished. All of which means that these contemporary artists follow old, proven strategies, which result, thanks to the different approaches, in new contents; in the present case this practice effects a rediscovery of values which have been considered dated, or on the level of the particular work, unknown. What is a statement on the part of the artist provokes questions for the viewer and the interpreter, even the curator. Is it possible to reform contemporary painting from the direction of the past, whether with romantic nostalgia or a conscious programme, and does it constitute a reform to use traditional paintings not only as a source but also as a model? Does painting need to be reformed, or is the concept of painting really invariable? Does the "picture" so gained add anything to the discourse of the contemporary visual arts, and are the end results contemporary works? Does the comparison of concrete, temporarily distant works bring into relief the artists' individual concept of tradition, and do the details cohere into an approach that seeks to create continuity? How will the shared characteristics of the Sensaria, which claims to be uniform as a group, show up in the exhibition space, and how will the differences come out? Those artists, almost thirty in number, who participate at the Hungarian National Gallery's exhibition Time of Paintinghope to offer positive answers to these questions, as they certainly consider the works they exhibit contributions to the discourse of contemporary art. The basic concept of the display came during the 2006 exhibition of the Sensaria Group in the Szombathely Gallery, called Beyond Time, which was the opening event of that year's Spring Festival. I was the curator of that exhibition, and it soon became evident that my role was understood unconventionally. The concept followed the painters' intentions, and it was vital to cooperate with them closely, which did not favour the realization of my own curatorial ideas. The present exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery, on the other hand, enables us curators to represent our own view of the continuity of tradition through the artists we invited, and the paintings we chose to be the pairs of the contemporary pieces. The Sensaria, whose works form the core of the exhibition, considers the Hungarian painting of the 19th and early 20th centuries as its model, while our concept also included the admittance of a few phenomena from later on. We invited further artists to complement with their works the propositions of the Sensaria, and to introduce new considerations that not only point beyond the sensibility embraced by the group, but also add to the unity its members hold so important, linking thereby the collective to a broader system of relations. The common element - the kernel of our concept - is the kind of use of the tradition which can be identified in the vision, which can be immediately recognized, which manifests itself in the approaches, themes and preferred genres these artists share with those forerunners whose works are in the holdings of the Hungarian National Gallery. With this exhibition, the Sensaria may realize a desire, that of their work effecting a change in the contemporary understanding of art, which they criticize for its bias of interpreting tradition solely with a view to reforming it. The intellectual kinship that unites the works of the members, who are dissimilar as regards creative personality, painterly method and genre, does indeed become manifest, as does their relationship to reality, which relies on shared fundaments. Dániel László, for instance, is keen on documenting himself in his relationship to painting, presents villages and towns that have more than topographical importance, his own home and family. He treats on such emblematic subjects of Csontváry as The View of Selmecbánya, or translates his own photos into painting, as in the case of a self-portrait he made in the storage room of the National Gallery, in which he is seen in the act of discovering pictures by János Nagy Balogh. Attila Kondor has reached the province of magic realism with his medieval drawing-like painting technique, and the cold classicism of Béla Kontuly's landscapes which we selected to accompany his works bring into sharp relief his philosophical foundations. Though for the artists of the Sensaria the starting point is usually an experience of reality, Abel Szabó's works also reveal the problem of confronting the photo as a tool, which derives from the intention to grasp, as accurately as possible, the crystalline "visuality" of the things seen. His cityscapes are informed with an objective, critical distance, though the onlooker is not a stranger but one who lives there, one who wants to understand, which makes him the kin of his "classic" accompaniment, Imre Kocsis and the socially sensitive approach of his suburban shop window. Roland Horváth has the most intimate relationship with primary painting.