Síkban és térben. Oroján István kiállítása (Gyulai katalógusok 5. Gyula, 1998)

Ibos Éva: Orojan (Fordította: Pató Attila)

person of great importance for him. His shining humanism and deep intellectuality had the utmost influence on Oroján. Moreover we may also add that his example made Oroján stronger in his belief in his way of surviving those dilemmas which were generated by contradictions existing between Romanians and Hungarians in such a small city as Gyula placed at the borders of the country, as well as in his firmness to follow the non-figurative way of painting in the neighbourship of the pseudorealistic style characteristic of the Great Plain of Hungary which was so preferred by the local general taste and so depressingly frozen into its tradition. There has been only one chance for that belief to attend to what is going on in the world. István Oroján was not received into his homeland - he found his place in the company of the constructivist group of Imre Bak, István Nádler, János Fájó, Tamás Henczß which worked at Budapest. One must count up that affectionate attending to Europe, (for which reason he has never missed any of the Biennales of Venice for example) and the carefully planned study-tours in Western Europe as well. Are there any consequences? Well, one may realize a mostly decided and consistent artistical development with a purposefully chosen engagement for plane-constructivism, which is by its essence the art of order and 'pure' picture forms and images. A special value of Oroján's art is that austerity, which is almost compulsory in the early stages of developing this style, had not become rigid, and moved away from that position long before it could have fallen into boring repetitiveness. It had not even developed into its outright negative form, but reached new periods of creativity keeping up its own artistic language enriching and loosening it up at the same time. It also turned out that there is a homo ludens in Oroján, which comes forth with an ease characteristic of Miro, though in a more short-mouthed style. His oeuvre is not complete without his graphics and plastic art, none being mere concomitants of his art of painting, but manifestation of thoughts which cannot be expressed in any other way. Small size, quickness in production - for these reasons the art of graphics is adequate for some intimate and inmost topics. A 'softer' side of Oroján comes through in his plastic art. Because of the organicism of wood the artist can express in this way his thoughts most closely related to the human existence. The comprehensive yet sensibly pulsing forms hide a latent aim at completeness. As well in their forms as in their emotions these works are as if they were coming from beneath Brâncu§i's greatcoat. But their relation is not only that of sculptors. The question is, considering Brâncu§i's and Oroján's Romanian origin, whether they share an activity relation? Presumably yes - and that 12