Feljebb – Mezei Ottó emlékére (Higher – In Memory of Ottó Mezei). This is the title of one of Attila Csáji’s mixed-media paintings from 2004. In the work, extremely finely crafted details are placed beside surfaces formed with a single gesture, just as the base – built from the tones of a single colour – forms a unity with the network of suddenly ‘igniting’ strong, warm colour patches that appear at various points on the surface, marking points of orientation. Almost ruler-straight lines guide the viewer’s gaze upward, toward an invisible point, a target, alluding at once to the last words of the distinguished art historian and, more generally, to the meaning of life and creative activity.
One of Attila Csáji's most poetic works also illustrates the direction that characterises the artist's career, from his early expressive colour schemes of the early sixties to his most recent works. The early works were first exhibited at the now legendary apartment gallery of Pál Petrigalla [1922-1976] in 1965. A year earlier, he had also produced the first works in his series Szürenon, and a few years later the title of the series became the eponym of the progressive artists' movement Szürenon. [Szürenon is a Hungarian artists’ collective, its name originating from Attila Csáji’s expression ‘sur et non.’ The word is a combination of surrealism and nonfigurativism.] In the mid-1960s, calligraphic marks and forms characteristic of Art Informel appeared in his works, whose plasticity also suggests that the artist was increasingly aware of the viewer's movements, changes of position and the changes in the light and shadow effects on the surface. The creation of these works is closely linked to the revelatory experience of the 1956 revolution for Attila Csáji. "For me, the greatest experience of the revolution was freedom. The freedom that shattered the shackles with incredible force and unexpectedness, the freedom that rose from the depths and created the future. When poetry became reality – for a few days – existence was caught up in the pull of truth," he once said. It took a decade for him to express his experience of freedom in visual form in the Üzenetek – Jelrácsok (Messages – Networks of Signs). These images are, as he calls them, ‘structures of freedom’. The ‘network of signs’ created at that time are plastic images interpreted with light. An integral part of them is raking light. These works represented structures of freedom, harmony in chaos, unity in improvisational structure for him at the end of the 1960s. At that time, he was deeply preoccupied with the problem of the autonomous individual and freedom. He doubted slogans, but also the splashing chaos of permissiveness. Technology did not particularly attract him then, yet he became convinced that technological civilization should not be rejected but humanized.
Already in the 1960s, his works promised a deepening of his interest in the natural history of light and the possibilities of light art, which soon manifested itself in his laser experiments from the 1970s onwards: while his painting career also developed in the 1980s and 1990s. An important element in the link between the two groups of works was Attila Csáji's intensive experiments with light-sensitive paints in the 1970s. He had already started using luminous powders in the late 1960s, and they were used to restructure the image on surfaces illuminated by different lamps. The big change took place after the studio exhibition at the Hungarian National Gallery. He interpreted the plastic images with artificial lights; and seeing them he was invited by the physicist Norbert Kroó, the head of laser research in Hungary, to the Central Research Institute of Physics, where he was able to work with previously unknown tools, continuing and going beyond the traditions of kinetic art. He believes that László Moholy-Nagy [1895-1946], the world-renowned master of the classical avant-garde, had already envisioned the 'light painter' in the first half of the last century, but that the tools of this activity have only been created in recent decades to the extent that it has been possible to combine poetic, painterly and engineering activities in artistic work. In the past, it was a bit like when Dénes Gábor discovered holography, but he did not have the orderly light source that holography requires. Many things have contributed to the enrichment of light art, but laser is the most important. With his help, Attila Csáji succeeded in finding a system of connections that is internationally unique. In collaboration with Róbert Kroó at the Central Institute for Physical Research, he developed a new image transformation method, the so-called superposition system, to explore the imaging potential of the laser, for which he received an international patent in 1980. The superposition method exploits the coherence of the laser to build a very rich visual system using classical optical means. He has lectured widely on the so-called superposition method and was invited to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987-88. In 1987, with the support of the Soros Foundation, he conducted research in Boston and New York, and one of his series of transmission holograms, entitled Fénykalligráfiák [Light Calligraphy], was made during this period, 1987-88. In 1991, with the support of Interscience Technology, he studied the imaging potential of lasers in the United States and was elected a permanent fellow of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, to the extent that he still uses the facilities of the institution. In 1993 the Leonardo Society [Leonardo, The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology] elected him one of its members.
The paintings of the nineties (Bikanász a labirintusban [Bull’s Mating in the Labyrinth], 1994, Nagy pajzs [The Great Shield], 1998) are characterized partly by the reduced formal world of the 1970s, the almost monochrome use of colour, the darkening and dramatic effect of colour, and partly by the need for change, the deepening of interest in ancient structures and sign systems capable of conveying aesthetic and ethical content independent of time and society. Referring to the memories of prehistoric cultures, at the turn of the millennium he sought a valid means of expression, as well as a way to unify two different visual and intellectual worlds: Rájuk sütött a a falakon a hajnal [Dawn Shone Upon Them on The Walls] in 1998, A Barlang mélye bennünk van [The Depth of The Cave is Within Us] from 2000, Szétszaggatásból újjáéledő [Reviving from Fragmentation] and Feljegyzések Narchos útjáról [Notes on Narchos’ Journey] from 2001 . This search for, or creation of, synthesis is documented in a group of works produced in the years after the millennium, including Quattara I (2003) and Egy emlékezetes feljegyzés [A Memorable Record] (2007). The former gives the image of an archaeological excavation in overhead view, the salient details seeming to hint at the richness of the cultures hidden beneath the surface, the immeasurable dimensions of life. The latter's details, suggestive of dynamic gestures, do not even suggest realistic details; the triangular motif that constitutes the basic structure of the picture and the combination of abstract details associated with it express the intention of combining playfulness and order, personal narrative and general laws of visuality, the laws of both the micro- and macro-world.
It would have been the culmination of artistic and scientific experiments with lasers if the laser tower planned for the Buda bank of the Danube had been built for the World Expo in Budapest, which was cancelled. The structure was to have been a huge obelisk, 33.5 metres high and consisting of three units, and was to have been built with the help of architect Károly Polonyi on the site of the university development centre in Lágymányos. In the centre of the building - a tower - a shaft of light would have risen upwards, forming a virtual space above the tower. The idea of putting light at the centre of the tower was based on the fact that light has been an organising force, a basic symbol and a fundamental determinant of life since prehistoric times, and that it has also had symbolic content since the beginning, being linked to all visual phenomena.
Although we can only contemplate the plans for this work in the hope that they will one day be realised, the next few years have seen some major works of light art. In 2002, in Denmark, during the presidency of the European Union, a major light art show, Lux Europae, brought together nineteen artists from seventeen countries to show their work in Copenhagen for three months between November and January. Attila Csáji's ten-metre-high work, Visszatérés [Return], was displayed on the wall of the Danish Cultural Institute at the centre of the event, evoking the organic order of nature and the need to return to it with a candle that slowly fades out and then begins to burn again, with an ever-brighter flame. In 2003 he staged a light performance entitled Return in the Trinitarian Church of Eger, and in 2005 he presented his large-scale laser environment art in the Kiscelli Museum and at the Hungarian Academy in Rome, entitled Lappok és laptop [Lapland and Laptop], combining ancient signs and motifs, which also appear in his paintings, with the most modern techniques. For the visitor to Attila Csáji’s exhibition, or more precisely to the exhibition of works in constant dialogue with one another, all this meant that the international world of science was compatible with the tradition towards which many believe traditional oil painting should turn. Or that innovation is very important, but not the only salvation: art is much more comprehensive, more than just meeting a single requirement. It is in the spirit of this need for completeness that the artist is preparing for his exhibition at the Műcsarnok [Kunsthalle] in Budapest in 2014.
[2014]