Stoll'Art Contemporary Gallery - Tibor Helényi: Colosseum Exhibition

Stoll'Art Kortárs Galéria - Helényi Tibor Colosseum Kiállítása

My name is Tibor Helényi. Having accomplished the series of exhibitions of my paintings under the collective name Chimaira (exhibited at Kiscelli Museum's Church Vault in 2000, at Pécsi Galllery in 2001, at Fészek Gallery in 2003, and at the Budapest Exhibition Hall in 2007), I am currently working on a new series of pictures.

My new paintings represent life size figures, however, the subject matter, i.e. the human figure is merely the vehicle to convey the message. An important feature of the artistic concept is that the paintings comprise several separate sections, and these plates show the expression of various, sometimes contradictory artistic styles. Figurative representation and realism is juxtaposed against artistic blots, passionate brush strokes confront geometric regularity, and all of the above are contrasted with the inlets of raw canvas surface dissecting the painted areas into segments.

Megynitó    Megynitó    Megynitó

Megynitó    Megynitó

Blank, raw canvas surface is an integral component of the concept - it is not the "background" of the picture, but rather the organic part of the image, a picture element equal in importance to the painted areas. Unpainted canvas, the so-called "negative" image represents positive forms, overlapping the figures, thus rendering the hierarchy of image components any the spatial correlations of the picture's surface hard to determine.

On some pictures, the image is punctured by a hole, and the environment, the "outer space" violently appears within the boundaries of the picture - however, the hole is a dominantly positive composition element of the painting. The "missing" element, the "void" receives importance, it is given a meaning. The human figures, the "guards" on the picture, are gripping emptiness, and guarding nothing - the existing object that's missing, protected by something that does not exist.

Megynitó    Megynitó    Megynitó

Megynitó    Megynitó    Megynitó

On some of the pictures, the subject matter is extended into the outer space, dissolving or destroying the boundaries of the image. Human figures on my paintings promote the understanding of non-figurative components, and similarly, non-figurative elements define human forms as parts of the composition.

Combinations and contradictions of various shapes and meanings; paintings comprising parts painted in different styles - all these are organized into a new complexity, a new totality of imagery.

Helényi Tibor
laureate of the Munkácsy award