Hencze Tamás

How can you record a movement as a movie? Did you really light the canvas? “ No problem, the fire goes out” -he waves his hand. The soot resulted was fastened with fixative. These were the Fire Pictures.    In the seventies this was not enough for a global fame, but not too little! He is interested in the process of mass moving. Nowadays, what these “splashed” pictures have to do with the move? Their story could be very common. “Oh, yes!” – he smiles – “a stain can come into being everywhere, something turns over or drops down, somebody spills his coffee cup…”                   .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          .

Well, there is a big “blob” of paint, in this case on a large piece of paper. So far, it is a random act. He cuts it out with a Stanley knife, so it becomes a template. He fastens it to the canvas, then paint is applied on the canvas, using paint roller several times. With patience and precision. It is for an exhibition, by chance.

Don’t you afraid of copying? A silly question. “Oh, no! Only I know how to cut out this curve” – and he self-confidently cuts a new “spark”.

When we ask: ‘How it was made?’ the series of his original ideas intrigues us. Today the dotted and striped objects are classical ones. “ I pressed my painted fingers to the canvass, and rolled upon.” He waits, watching if I believe or not. His movement swings skillfully with a fine piece of his squeegee collection. His calligraphic pictures were created with generous swing as well. He has long bean dealing with the Eastern philosophy, so it was that he arrived to Seoul. Connected to the Olympic Games, a huge exhibition was organized, and he was invited as well.

He seated us with a gesture of high society mood.

He sits gracefully on the couch with confident calm, as if in a day of rest, however, he worked this morning. A picture betrays him: yet it is wet. We are talking on his friends of artists, on famous ones of avant-garde decades, on art-renewing circles. We cannot even count them; to list their names is impossible. It turns out what seemed to be a bohemian world from outside at that time, it was certainly a serious think tank, a precursor of the great changes.

You can not think that you enter into a studio. At arrival it is a decorative reception hall, on the walls important pictures invoking the past. Several drawings, one of his first calligraphies, watercolors. Everything is in due order. Then, it transform to a workshop. It is purpose-made; you can pick up or store anything in a minute. Pulling out a giant drawer of the console table, he surprisingly shows his important tools, the rubber rollers. He has the stock of paints and brushes what exactly needed. He once said he dislike the abundant colours. He introduces us to the birth of his works with delight and without secrecy. One moment, and the workshop returns to be a gallery. We put around the pictures of a series along the walls. You can not get fed up with the variations. We enjoy the show: “You can make a photo on this, and that…”

6/3/2011 Budapest