Walking through the third floor of the Hungarian National Gallery, one comes across a peculiar installation: inside a transparent plexiglass prism lies a rolled-up issue of the newspaper Pesti Hírlap, its front page bearing the headline “The Heir to the Throne and His Wife Have Been Assassinated.” From the newspaper, stag beetles burst out like grotesque caricatures of war machines, evoking the horrors of the First World War.
According to Tibor Wehner, Paizs’s object is one of the emblematic masterpieces of modern Hungarian art. “Looking at it feels like confronting a moment of history preserved in amber,” he writes in his 2000 monograph on Paizs.
László Paizs passed away on 1 October 2009. He spent most of his life on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, in an era hardly conducive to artistic freedom – yet he created a varied and colourful, at the same time remarkably unified body of work. Both painter and sculptor, his constant movement between genres and his drive to experiment with all kinds of materials reflect his rejection of schematic uniformity and his defiance of socialist aesthetics, which sought to confine artistic liberty within ideological bounds. He regarded individuality as an indispensable criterion of creation and therefore ignored the authorities’ prescriptive expectations toward the visual arts.
His art is charged with constant tension between opposites: his works often fuse conflicting tendencies, and his experimental use of materials is paired with a provocative tone and historical allusions – all of which can be read as a reflection of our shared Central European experience in visual form.
In one of his interviews, Paizs remarked that “our art is characterised by lateness in relation to world art and to the passage of time.” [1] Yet this observation does not necessarily apply to his own oeuvre – as the career of perhaps today’s most famous contemporary artist, Damien Hirst, suggests. Twenty years after the creation of Paizs’s Trónörökös (Heir to the Throne), Hirst produced an object of similar spirit – one that also captures a frozen moment in space – and became world-famous, a star of the biggest auction houses of our time.
László Paizs was an extremely versatile, ceaselessly experimental, ever-innovative artist who rejected tradition – painter, graphic artist, and sculptor in one. He could not bear the constraints of conventional genres and techniques, and this attitude displeased many. On the occasion of his 1971 exhibition at the Adolf Fényes Gallery (now Árkád Gallery), one critic in the newspaper Magyar Nemzet even questioned whether Paizs’s works could be called art at all, writing: “These compositions cannot be considered art.” Time has proved the critic wrong.
His diploma work, a mosaic composition depicting three female figures, can be seen on the wall of the Faculty of Food Science at the Corvinus University of Budapest (formerly the College of Horticulture and Viticulture). Created in the style reminiscent of socialist realism, the work nonetheless evokes the mosaics of sixth-century Ravenna upon closer inspection.
Paizs’s artistic vision matured in the late 1950s. His first works – large-scale compositions decorating the walls and halls of public institutions, including murals, panels, mosaics, and tapestries – testify to his professional versatility. He then turned to what might be called traditional oil painting, while continuously seeking new means of expression. The experience of the Venice Biennale radically transformed his artistic outlook. “That was the great awakening. I was fascinated by the pop art works in the American and Belgian pavilions. Then I realised that it is not only with oil that one can paint on canvas. […] The pop art at the Venice Biennale gripped me. From then on, I began working with other materials.”[2]
According to Márton Barabás, “At the 1964 Biennale, Paizs saw works by American pop art artists who were close to abstract expressionism. In the Belgian pavilion, he encountered pieces belonging to the art brut movement. The grand prize for painting at the Biennale went to Robert Rauschenberg, while the sculpture prize was awarded to the Hungarian-born artist representing Switzerland, Zoltán Kemény, who was likewise associated by critics with art brut. The entire oeuvre of Paizs may also have been influenced by Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Zabriskie Point. He came into contact with the representatives of French Nouveau Réalisme – especially Arman – somewhat later, after he had already embarked on his own experiments and created his first major works.”[3]
Upon returning from the Biennale, he abandoned traditional oil-on-canvas painting and created a series of so-called “embroidered pictures”, reminiscent of certain pop art works, made by applying textiles, metal, leather, and insect pins onto fibreboard.
His first solo exhibition opened in the spring of 1967 at the Művészklub in Győr. However, his new experimental pursuits were not well received by Marxist cultural policy, and at first the presentation of his Biennale-inspired, Western-influenced works was prohibited. Many of the paintings from the Stúdió ‘67 group exhibition at the Ernst Museum – which featured artists such as Sándor Altorjai, László Lakner, Gyula Konkoly, Imre Bak, and Ilona Keserü – were removed from the walls even before the opening. This event foreshadowed the complete marginalisation of the participating artists’ careers; as a result, several of them turned away from artistic creation altogether or left the country. After a nervous breakdown, Paizs ceased his artistic activity for several years, but since creating was essential to his existence, he eventually remained faithful to his original vision. It is no coincidence that the catalogue of the Paizs Memorial Exhibition at the Csepel Gallery, organised by István Sárkány and Albert Kováts, opens with the poet György Petri’s lines: “We must create, we must act – with pen, with brush, with nothing – because it cannot be that we merely exist…”[4]
He created his first characteristic plexiglass object in 1969.
“The transparency of the plexiglass block makes it possible to create ‘conscious’ fossils. Within it, a ‘falling’ object comes to a halt, and smoke becomes motionless. The interplay of coloured or dyed polyesters of different qualities produces a unique, exciting surface texture that cannot be achieved otherwise. The beauty and properties of these ‘new’ materials inspire me when creating my works,” we read on the back cover of his 2009 monograph.
In his dissertation [5] Márton Barabás notes that during one of their conversations, László Paizs mentioned first seeing plexiglass or a similar transparent plastic after the bombings in Kőszegpaty, as the window of a downed Liberator bomber. This transparent, lightweight material is often used as a substitute for glass due to its shatterproof quality; in the visual arts, it was first employed by early constructivists such as Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo, before being rediscovered by mid-20th-century artists. In Hungary, however, opportunities for its artistic use were limited due to the difficulty of acquiring it, which forced Paizs to produce the material himself.
From this period date such works as Piros tömb (Red Block), Zöld tömb (Rózsabogár Zugehörrel) (Green Block with Rose Beetle Zugehör), Hímzett farzseb (Embroidered Back Pocket), Felrobbant tv-képcső (Exploded TV Picture Tube), and Unser Kaiser im Gebiet. The 6.80-as borotválkozó tükör (csehszlovák gombostűkkel) (6.80 Shaving Mirror [with Czechoslovak Pins]) – produced in several versions and carrying a political reference – also dates from 1969. The sense of threat posed by a potential nuclear strike is reflected in Atomfelhő gézből (Mushroom Cloud of Gauze, 1970), Truman és Attlee bejelentette: elkészült az atombomba (Truman and Attlee Announced: The Atomic Bomb Is Ready, 1970), which depicts a chicken skeleton reaching toward a mock sun disk, and Atomfelhő kutyagerinccel (Mushroom Cloud with Dog Spine, 1970). The 1970 object A trónörökös párt meggyilkolták (The Heir Apparent Couple Was Assassinated), now part of the permanent exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery, is a defining work of this period. It was followed by pieces such as A posztimpresszionista festő nyloninge (The Post-Impressionist Painter’s Nylon Shirt), Génkezelt tápon hízlalt csont csirke (Bone Chicken Fattened on Genetically Modified Feed), which again features a chicken skeleton, and Hadat üzenünk Szerbiának, 1914 (We Declare War on Serbia, 1914), in which, similarly to The Heir Apparent Couple Was Assassinated, the artist used a contemporary newspaper as material – this time wrapping a coat hanger with it and suspending a pair of suspenders.
Also notable from this period are Plexi tömb (Plexi Block, 1975) and Akril plasztika (Acrylic Sculpture, 1977), “which contain no ancient objects but instead present the constructive formal play of plexiglass casting.”[6] From the same years date his gypsum sculptures, such as Amatőr tojás sárgája I–II. (Amateur Egg Yolk I–II, 1979). In the following decade, he repeatedly produced large-scale, coloured, constructive sculptures using polyester. “László Paizs’s geometric period represents one of the emblematic artistic phenomena of the stabilising late 1970s and early 1980s. It is no coincidence that his geometric sculptures were installed at the country’s edges – for example in Zalaegerszeg or Hévíz, the centre of bathing culture; next to the Budapest Congress Centre; or on the outskirts of Szentendre, the closest tourist destination to Budapest,” writes Márton Barabás.[7] Around this time, Paizs also began modelling his organic bronze sculptures.
Among his coloured polyester panels is Az átváltozás stációi I. (Égő Botticelli) (Stations of Transformation I [Burning Botticelli], 1987), which, with its artificially corroded surfaces, evokes the impression of an archaeological relic and stands as a fine example of the series titled Európai kövületek (European Fossils). “The large-scale compositions of the series, paraphrasing classical works of European painting, marked a return in Paizs’s oeuvre to the genre of figurative panel painting. The burned polyester surfaces applied to the paintings symbolise the destruction of spiritual values in universal culture and art, yet they assemble into decorative, sensitive textures.”[8]
Speaking about these artificially created fossil-like works in 1989, the artist said: “One could say this is what Botticelli’s painting would look like ten thousand years from now, when it’s found as a fossil and put on display... I’m compelled to anticipate the future, to see it. That’s why I produce the future in several variations.” Later continuations of this series include Apokrif látomás (Apocryphal Vision, 1994) and Cím nélkül IV–V. (Untitled IV–V, 1997).
In the same decade, he presented a large-scale graphic series reminiscent of ancient torsos, resembling archaeological finds. These works share a conceptual kinship with his earlier panel paintings. His paintings created around the turn of the millennium – such as Álló figura (Standing Figure), Ülő figura (Seated Figure), Kettős figura (Double Figure), Király és királynő I–II. (King and Queen I–II), Sámánok ideje (Time of Shamans), and Zuhanó figura (Falling Figure) – appear as decorative gestures.
The exhibitions organised for László Paizs’s sixty-fifth and seventieth birthdays at the Szombathely Gallery and Dorottya Gallery were not retrospectives summarising his art to date but rather “large-scale, exciting presentations that articulated new creative problems and demonstrated the application of newly experimented image- and object-making techniques.”[9]
As on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1956 Revolution, Paizs also created a new series. As a second-year student at the Academy of Applied Arts, he could closely observe the unfolding events. He commemorated the revolution with deeply moving works such as Lehetséges célpont 1956 (Possible Target 1956), Budapest 1956. október (Budapest, October 1956), the Becsapódó őszi lövedékek 1956-sorozat (Falling Autumn Shells 1956 Series), Célzott Lövés (Aimed Shot), and Korpusz (Corpus), all of which evoke bullet marks and gaping wounds on their pale surfaces.
Recurring symbols and motifs appear throughout László Paizs’s work – “conceptual threads that ensure continuity within his oeuvre beyond material use itself. In essence, he creates future relics in every genre and with every technique. He simultaneously preserves and corrodes the values of the present and the past so that, becoming archives, they warn of the fragility and vulnerability of true (not only artistic) values. Time also plays a key role in Paizs’s art. In art history, time is the supreme judge – the measure of true artistic worth is endurance. The segments of the past mummified in plexiglass evoke a kind of archaeological preservation. At the same time, through his panel paintings – future archaeological finds made in the present – Paizs renders our own era archaic. His paintings and sculptures are transitions between temporal planes and ages, transparent layers of time interpenetrating one another.”[10]
In 1986, on the thirtieth anniversary of the Revolution, he created another major series, comparable to the explosion scene in Antonioni’s film. The ascending ashes of burnt paper – or in other works, the black ink, soot, or smoke flowing within still-liquid plexiglass – were inventions of László Paizs unseen in the work of any other artist (Könyvégetők emlékére / In Memory of the Book Burners). The more abstract pieces in this series (which evoke all previous book burnings in a dramatic way) are also masterpieces of the “book sculpture” genre.
“In several of his statements, Paizs noted that simultaneity and keeping pace with the progressive currents of his time were important to him. By the mid-1970s, the directness and renewing force of pop art in Western art seemed to have waned. Alongside conceptual art and photorealism, the new directions were the later forms of op art associated with geometric abstraction, post-painterly abstraction, and individual initiatives. Although Paizs was interested in conceptual art, it never became a central concern or a basis for a major body of work. He did produce text-based works – for instance, a plexiglass block containing Attila József’s poem A Dunánál (By the Danube) cast in gold letters – yet this possibility did not result in a larger group of objects. Lakner, who emigrated to the West in 1974, painted a whole series of text-pictures and, along the path between writing and automatic (informel) painting, advanced toward his large-scale painting ISA PUR Halotti beszéd (Nothing But Dust, Funeral Oration, 1982). Paizs, perhaps by temperament or through his experimentation with materials, found and marked out another distinct direction. His geometric sculptures were characterised by elegance, confidence, and contemporaneity.”[11]
Parallels have often been drawn between the art of Arman (Armand Fernandez), the French-born artist working in America, and that of László Paizs. While there are indeed visual similarities between their works, their concepts differ profoundly: “Arman accumulates – he places side by side masses of identical, impersonal objects devoid of uniqueness or intimacy, presenting fragments of reality without specific meaning, evoking only a general association with the devaluing effects of consumer society. Paizs, in contrast, isolates and selects; his objects are emphatically unique, personal, even intimate. In his later cast works, Arman manifested his outbursts of anger against high art – for instance, by recording the destruction of musical instruments. Paizs too employed the frozen moment of an action and, later on, even destruction, explosion, and demolition – yet never directed against art itself, but rather against politics. His 1986 work In Memory of the Book Burners II depicts a burning book of Lenin, not as an overtly anti-communist political gesture but as a recollection of the book burnings of 1956.” [12]
To summarise the work of László Paizs – in the words of Márton Barabás – “three major shifts in direction occurred within his oeuvre, along with several smaller adjustments in emphasis within the final major phase. These changes were brought about by intellectual, artistic, cultural, and historical transformations. The first was linked to the group of phenomena encompassing abstract expressionism, pop art, and art brut; the second to op art and geometric abstraction or structural sculpture; and the third to postmodern transavantgarde art. This entire process was shaped and unified by the most distinctive element of his individual response – his characteristic use of materials, his related technological imagination, personal sensitivity, and talent.” [13]
A year after his death, at the Csepel Gallery, one hundred and one painters and sculptors paid tribute to his memory with one hundred and fifty works, attesting to the universality of his oeuvre. The paintings, drawings, collages, and sculptures displayed across the gallery’s four rooms were connected to the artist in their style, execution, or meaning – or simply through the respect, affection, and admiration their creators felt for László Paizs and his art.
[2016]
[1] Tibor Wehner: Ritkított járat - Conversation with painter László Paizs on the state of our art, Budapest, Wednesday, 31 January 2001
[2] Excerpt from András Ladányi's interview with László Paizs
[3] in Paizs László stíluskorszakainak elemzése. Márton Barabás PhD dissertation, DLA thesis, Budapest University of Fine Arts, 12 January 2012.
[4] György Petri: Vakvilág (The Blind World)
[5] in Paizs László stíluskorszakainak elemzése Márton Barabás PhD dissertation, DLA thesis, Budapest University of Fine Arts, 12 January 2012.
[6] Judit Szeifert: Pentimento temporis Paizs László eddigi életművéről; http://artlevel.hu/portrait?p=2
[7] in Paizs László stíluskorszakainak elemzése. Márton Barabás PhD dissertation, DLA thesis, Budapest University of Fine Arts, 12 January 2012.
[8] Judit Szeifert: Pentimento temporis on László Paizs László eddigi életművéről; http://artlevel.hu/portrait?p=2
[9] in: Elhunyt Paizs László képzőművész, 8 October 2009, http://www.nefmi.gov.hu/miniszterium/2009/elhunyt-paizs-laszlo
[10] Judit Szeifert: Pentimento temporis on László Paizs' oeuvre to date; http://artlevel.hu/portrait?p=2
[11] in Paizs László stíluskorszakainak elemzése. Márton Barabás PhD dissertation, DLA thesis, Budapest University of Fine Arts, 12 January 2012.
[12] in Paizs László stíluskorszakainak elemzése. Márton Barabás PhD dissertation, DLA thesis, Budapest University of Fine Arts, 12 January 2012.
[13] in Analysis of the stylistic periods of László Paizs. Márton Barabás PhD dissertation, DLA thesis, Budapest University of Fine Arts, 12 January 2012.