This new group of five small double-sided square acrylic paintings on cotton entitled Doors and Windows / Ajtó, ablak was made for the Society of Hungarian Painters‘ spring open exhibition of that same name. These newest works veer towards pure painting while still making use of pressed transfer of pigment and retaining the double-side functionality of recent works on paper.
The gessoed, cotton squares had been prepared at an earlier time and, in searching for a work surface small enough to fit into a shipping envelope, were unearthed on a shelf in the studio. It has been some time since working on fabric surfaces, although the studio corner is stacked with completed large linen canvases. The small square format of these paintings however, takes me back to World in Fragments, a 20-piece acrylic on canvas work done in 2005, now in the permanent collection of the 9th District Historical Museum of Budapest. That work, too, is a shape-shifter. Its 20 square pieces are stackable like loose pages of a book, or can be spread out on the floor in various arrangements. They come with ancillary elements; wax crayon tracings on transparent acrylic that can be hung or rolled.
Two of the new Doors and Window pieces are making their way to Hungary at this moment, to join the works of 73 artists in the exhibit which opens virtually on April 23rd at FUGA, the Budapest Ceter of Architechture in Budapest. There will be a recorded virtual opening on FUGA’s YouTube channel.
Click on any of the pieces below to see larger images in sequencial order.
Diane Sophrin 