Gyergyádesz László, ifj.: Félbeszakadt prófécia Lantos Ferenc zománcművészeti alkotásai 1967-1976 (Kecskemét, 2006)

THE INTERRUPTED PROPHECY

abstract motifs and patterns, that most of the time are inspired by nature, could easily be multiplied and variable sequential patterns of which could be designed (colorplates 42-43). It is particularly important to note that Lantos has consciously sought "compromises", or inter-relationships, between modern architecture and nature with his "ornaments". These efforts are highlighted by himself in a 1976 reportage made on the occasion of making the enamel frieze of the Kecskemét bus-terminal when he was working at the international Enamel workshop there: "... I am searching for relations in nature that are not primarily linked to images of nature but rather to the construction logic of nature. It is very important that we set up a system of forms that are, so to say, in synch with the interna! respiration of nature and yet refer to this system of raster in its external representation. I believe, therefore, that in any case we have to think in terms of vertical and horizontal raster but in a way that the inner division of which just suggests the opposite. I am thinking of a sequence of standing rectangulars at the bus-terminal that contains elements with the proportion of eight- pentad. That is to say, I would consider the rule of golden-section in which a very simple arched form would be repeated... This eight-pentad proportion is a generally characteristic proportion of nature that is equally valid to the proportions of the human body".‘ (page 11, colorplate 28)

The works of these two periods are very strongly connected to Bonyhád and to the enamel art symposia there where Lantos played a pivotal role. The organization of the first symposium, called "Building Enamel Workshop", in 1968 was largely motivated by Lantos’s hardly one year old production and was done jointly by his student Kamill Major and the Chief Engineer of the Factory, Gyula Máthé. At the first workshop next to Lantos and his disciples several other artists took part, such as e.g. Tihamér Gyarmathy, Oszkár Papp and Gyula Pauer. Later symposia, called Mecseknádasd Workshops since I 970, were organized by Lantos himself, primarily with the regular participation, up until 1973, of artists of the Pécsi Műhely (Pécs Workshop) and its precedent, the Pécs Design Studio (Ferenc Ficzek, Károly Halász, Károly Kismányoki, Sándor Pinczehelyi, Lajos Szeiényi and Kálmán Szíjártó], At certain symposia several artists, including amongst the many, Imre Bak, László Bokros, János Fajó and Károly Koffán Jr. 8

8. Osgyáni, Cs.: A discussion with Mihály Kátai and Ferenc Lantos in the enamel art workshop in Summer 1976. In Hungarian. In: Zománcművészeti Alkotótelep, Kecskemét 1976. Ed.: Sümegi, Gy. Katona József Megyei Múzeum, Kecskemét, 1977. p. 53.

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