September 11, 2024 - October 26, 2024
"Colors are not just there, not once and for all, they are given, they are not self-evident to the extent that it is no longer worthwhile to go into them in depth. No. Colors are alive: they move and move, they are included, they are dependent and dependent, they are powerful, they can serve and impress."
István HALMI-HORVÁTH's solo exhibition, "Where he stands is a centre of light," at VILTIN Gallery, showcases his latest works inspired by Josef Albers's (1888-1976) theoretical work.
While the German artist and theoretician explored the distinction between the objective phenomenon of color and the subjective experience of vision, HALMI-HORVÁTH delved into the aesthetic, psychological, and intellectual dimensions of color theory besides the theoretical aspects. Color played a vital compositional role in his art from the beginning, with the interplay between form and color driving the internal dynamics of his earlier series. Since 2020, the artist has been working on his Hommage a Albers series, a tribute to Josef Albers' seminal work Interaction of Color in modern color theory.
The Hommage a Albers paintings feature alternating lighter and darker color bands. In these vertically oriented pictures, surfaces are divided by parallel stripes. HALMI-HORVÁTH uses structured shifts in rhythm and tone, as well as contrasts, to draw attention toward the center of the picture, where an increasingly intense band of light divides the compositions through the gaps in the grid structure. The interactions between the color fields and their arrangement create a sense of motion within the seemingly static square image spaces. These paintings are kinetic and quietly meditative at once, combining formal simplicity with the sensuality of color. The series' approach bears traces of the spirit of Albers and Malevich, while it is akin to the art of Bridget Riley or Mark Rothko. HALMI-HORVÁTH tackles painterly problems, but manual craftsmanship is an equally important part of the work. In addition to the relationship of colors to each other, his series is based on the laws and interactions of geometry and light. The relativity of human perception, of colors and their perception are often in question: how subjective, and what are the differences between the colors' physical reality and psychological effects? The series is characterized by multi-tone monochrome works, combining time and timelessness, objective and subjective perception, and visualizing external and internal states. In HALMI-HORVÁTH's paintings, light is at once an ethereal, intangible phenomenon, as well as a motif, a focus, and a concrete subject. In addition to the optical play spanning through the images, the artist also addresses the image structure problems, enclosing finally his compositions within the space of the image with a white frame, repeatedly evoking the image in image format and dynamics.