Hann Ferenc (szerk.): Rajzok. Deim Pál, Gavrilovits Sándor, Velekei József Lajos kiállítása a Szentendrei Képtárban 1994. május 1 - június 29. (Szentendre, 1994)

In the present exhibition we can see the drawings of three artists: those of the Kossuth Prizewinner, Pál DEIM and two of his younger colleagues, Sándor GAVRILOVITS, and József Lajos VELEKEI.

The relationship of the three artists to drawing is completely different. This is natural, since even if their message is close to one another, their oeuvres are markedly different and thus the role of drawing in their art (an auxiliary medium or the means of autonomous expression) is also dissimilar.

Sándor GAVRILOVITS is closest to a Naturalistic rendering. His most recent drawings borrow from ancient Hungarians myths, the scenes of the history of ancient Hungarians appear in them (Emese's Dream) or the symbolic signs of ancient folklore (The Gates of Life series) and we often meet ideological themes ranging from explicit homages (Homage to J. A.) to moralistic-moralizing pieces (We Are Merely Born). The rendering also shows a very wide spectrum: we could see fully detailed, Naturalistic segments of reality (the head of the mating Turul, the symbolic falcon of the princely tribe or its feathers), the finely rendered structure of wood (Gate) and also symbolic, puppet-like or cut up seed-like forms which are familiar from DEIM's art. One thing is striking: indirect impressions rarely appear in GAVRILOVITS' drawings. The source of invention is literature, his message renders a principle, an attitude, a moral quest.

A completely different case is that of József Lajos VELEKEI. His drawings stem form a magmatic centre while his method is to elaborate a motif. Certain segments of his drawings have a similar effect to the moving late charcoal drawings of Lajos Vajda.

VELEKEI has created a specific personal mythology. He is seeking cosmic correlations being interested in Genesis and Creation. Natural and human existence are merged in his art, the former being more stressed. He hardly ever uses a figure, and even if he does, the human figure is rater allusive, rendered as an anthropomorphous organic form, most often of a turned, wrung tree at the river which alludes to Man. The essence of his philosophy is the following: Hungary is like a riverside where life is hard, Man is defenseless. And yet vegetation has a

fantastic capacity of survival in these brutal and hard conditions, for the flood comes and goes, and for him the wrung trees of the riverside are more beautiful (and atristic) than the tall pines over the dam (which are alien to him).

Another different oeuvre is that of Pál DEIM. DEIM discovered his puppet-like figure which, altered and modified, became a constant character of his works while painting in a seminary in a Macedonian convent at the and of the 1960's. This doll, puppet or living balustrade renders all the situations of human life: suffering, happiness, goood and bad luck, being once magnificent, other times frail, ordinary or elevated. It flies and stumbles, represents Jesus and Mary but may express fully prophane human fate as well.

In the latest period DEIM's interests turned towards the continuity of human existence, the biology of reproduction, begetting. His figures manifest rather diverse (sometimes extreme) attitudes. The mechanism of love, making love, simple intercourse is hardly so diverse, nevertheless these pieces cannot be regarded as synonims, since the act itself can be holy and elevated, but also prophane and ordinary, DEIM explores the field between these two extremes by making his figures act.

DEIM's drawings rarely rely on the line itself. He frequently uses Chinese ink or walnut dye and thus they proceed toward painting. DEIM's puppets transcend the limits of genres with a similar ease. If they are intended to be plastical, they enter space, but if they are intended to be rather decorative, they stay within the frameworks of the panel painting, or in intimate situations they turn into drawings.

The collective show of these three artists speaks about the diversity of possibilities inherent in the drawing. The fact that these three different artistic attitudes appear in Szentendre Gallery offers a choice for the audience to decide which it is going to identify itself with as well as an opportunity of reflection and aesthetic pleasure.

DR. FERENC HANN art historian