“In this short text, relying on my personal thoughts, I am offering a very brief introduction to the artistic work of my father, Gyula László. What you can see at this exhibition is certainly only a very small portion of my father’s artistic creations and activities, which actually encompass almost all branches of fine arts. In fact, this exhibition showcases – apart from a few other artworks – only some of Gyula László’s graphic and pictorial pieces. In addition to these works of art, he also prepared newspaper headings; stage designs; posters; book illustrations; etchings; lino and woodcuts; filmstrips; stone, wood and bronze sculptures; plaquettes; ceramics; bone carvings; but he also painted not only the furniture he had himself created but also the shutters of his summer cottage, and he also prepared a small winger altar.

Let us look at and observe these drawings and paintings in a way he himself would have done. He would definitely stop and think about the circumstances of creating these pieces and would ponder about how and why their creation happened. Without doubt, the point of this exhibition is not to decipher the meanings of these artworks, as this would require that the audience should decipher the artist himself behind these works; rather, the point is to think deeply about these pieces.

He was entangled and engaged in so many things, and he had a myriad of interests. Even before his college years, he was fascinated by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s genius; during these years writings by Dezső Szabó and by Hungarian “folk writers” of the 1920s and 1930s had an enormous effect on him; he was on friendly terms with the greatest Hungarian figures of literature and fine arts; and he also gave a lecture at the renowned and historic Conference in Balatonszárszó in 1943, where the Hungarian intellectual elite was pondering about the political future of the country. Indeed, the number of his books and writings is well over 800.

Drawings and the art of painting accompanied him throughout his life. It was this fascination that the exhibition tries to depict: among the works showcased one finds his self-portrait from his lower secondary school years, whereas the last piece – functioning as the closing piece of the exhibition – shows a portrait depicting the transitory nature of life.”

Zoltán László