Pál János Ervin: A HAGYOMÁNY FELÉ (Kiállítási katalógusok - Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2009)

ANTAEUS AND SHEPHERD'S CROOK About Ervin Páljános' "carvings" Ervin Páljános' first important sole exhibition took place in Szentendre in the Old Artists' Colony Gallery (Régi Mű veszte lepi Galéria) in 1992. This was followed in 1997 after a longer break by a new solo exhibition in Vác, in the exhibition room of the Greek Church where he presented to the public and to the profession new and coherent material: the Antaeus statues. This reveals immediately that the artist is not as prolific as Picasso was. And if I wish to put into words the essence of Páljános' activity with the conciseness of an encyclopaedia, then I have to write that in his works he follows the traditions of the par excellence sculptor technique on one hand, and tries to harmonize the tradition of form creation and the craft with more modern solutions of expression; solutions, which interest him personally, on the other hand. We don't see here a program art but an attitude harmonizing craft with self-expression. As a result, I can not be mistaken when I say: this is Ervin Páljános' third most significant exhibition. And when I add that he finished his studies in 1982 at the Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of József Somogyi and József Borsos, than no explanation is required but the meaning of the words "attitude and third" is put in its proper light. The question how it is to be sculptor in a town rich in traditions of the avant-garde and of landscape painting contributes to the further refinement of the subject. And a further question: when a rich tradition is there, is it worth only to refuse it or only to sink into it - or is there a third way? Since Páljános follows uninterrupted his path of the forms, which he discovered earlier and presented in his Antaeus exhibition in 1997, let us start from there. Who is Antaeus? Antaeus from Libya, the restless son of Gaia was invincible as long as he could touch the ground (Gaia, the mother earth) with his feet. By vainness Antaeus challenged all passers-by to wrestling matches and killed them. Heracles discovered that Gaia was helping Antaeus, so he simply held him aloft and crushed him. This is the brief story linked to the statues. This story is about us as well and about the classic and modern tradition of art. More important than the story itself is the fact that the same way as David preparing for the fight or Daphnis who turned to bay-tree, the subject of Antaeus is not a par excellence task for a sculptor: in all these subjects the task is to express change, movement, overcoming gravity by solid materials and static forms. Few succeeded in this after Michelangelo and Bernini; maybe only the futurists who were enchanted by the dynamics in their works. When unfolding the subjects he chose himself, Páljános undertook to solve a situation contradicting the basic laws of sculpture. And his undertaking is definitely successful. I see his success in the solution of these three-four tasks hereafter: I. "Rewriting" the story in the language of plastic art without degrading it to a mere illustration II. Matching block-like forms and decorative planes, it means making maximum use of the intensity of far and near view III. Revaluating the view about stability and block-likeness of the statue by hanging it. All these are only interesting when a solution is found for all of them simultaneously. Following our ideas about a statue, it is a block-like, static shape with unopened outlines. Furthermore, the hanging and wobbling statues - having their dimension in space and at the same time moving the plane - remind rather of Baroque foliation of wrought iron gates and sign-boards, but I can write also that they rather remind of gigantesque shepherd's crooks instead of the usual classical block. Leaving the idea of block-likeness we can state that in its creation of forms the contemporary sculpture is neither far away from the traditional world of folk motives, nor from the subjects of the painting of Szentendre. The iron bars remind us of the works of Lajos Vajda! The motive of the felt coat, the tree of life reminds us of the works of Dezső Korniss and Endre Bálint, the wooden toys and the gingerbread forms recall Mihály Schéner. It is not by accident that we find analogy and relationship in the local art in spiritual sense and in the forms. The link is even more striking when we compare Páljános' work with the ideas of local contemporary sculptors. With a speculative look at the motives let us evoke the independent form of expression, which "sprouts" from the landscape painting of Szentendre: the tradition of depiction of vegetation. Let us think of the works of Tibor Boromissza, Imre Ámos, Júlia Vajda, Jenő Paizs Göbel, but don't forget the works of Pál Miháltz, Béla Fekete Nagy, Piroska Szántó and mainly Lajos Vajda. A remarkable forerunner is the series of charcoal drawings of Lajos Vajda, "cosmic and infernal" at the same time. Among the last mentioned artists, it was mainly Lajos Vajda who was able to express life-questions of high value by depicting the vegetative existence called "primitive" in biological sense. Thus, this is the story, this is the tradition. But the contemporary artist has to answer the question of "how further". And what is the difference, which is interesting for us, contemporary public. Unlike his great forerunners and in the atmosphere of the years 2000, with his carvings Páljános does not unfold the tragedy tightened in the vegetative existence, he rather unravels the solemnity hidden in the living and lush organic forms. Therefore, if we consider the works of Vajda and of his contemporaries Dionysian in the sense as Nietsche used the word, we have to look at the wobbling statues as apollonian, adding that we interpret the uncertainty in the wobbling status, the tension due to the hanging and the treatment of the material in a decorative way as a stigma characteristic for contemporary plastic art (like in the sculptures of Calder, of Sándor Csutoros or of Valéria Sass). Of course, Páljános unfolds the traditions of Szentendre and the modern traditions of spirit and form with his characteristic invention so that the trinity of personal filter, craft and tradition unite his works. József Bárdosi 4