Helényi Tibor kiállítása (Dorottya utcai kiállítóterem, Budapest, 1982)

The way Tibor Helényi ereaets his applied graph­ic works reminds me of a famous Hungarian short story, Circus, written by Frigyes Ka­rinthy. The story is about a young violin player who vainly yearns for public attention, until he does the big trick: at a circus, he builds a huge tower of various objects, climbs to the top of it, and then, finally, he can play his tune. The allusion may be a little far fetched, but the fact remains that Helényi paints his posters and ma­gazine covers in oil, on canvas, with the tip of the brush, down to the smallest detail, and then, when the painting is complete, he has a colour transparency made; this colour slide is the „original” artwork, the basis, from which the printing process starts. This complicated and painstaking technology was at first a kind of action gratuite or an additional kind of study, but by now it is Helényi’s main line. Drawing is foremost in his paintings. Brilliant technique, strict composition, tricks done with linear perspective, superb knowledge of ana­tomy, sophisticated plays with foreshortened limbs, bodies, objects - these have become parts of his essence. His knowledge and his way of presenting it remind the viewer of baroque and manierist masters; he is the heir of tricks long forgotten. He hardly ever distorts, and if he does, he does it differently from the expres­sionist way of distortion. Helényi is a highly conscious and intellectual artist; apparently he holds his imagination and liveliness on a leash, and this is what makes him so suggestive. As we see on the cover of this booklet, he has named his exhibition „Bodimage”, a word he created, putting together two words: body and image. Accordingly, the iconography of the exhibition is homogenous: the pictures repre­sent the human body (male nudes, to be pre­cise); everything is static, the figures are seen either from the front or from the back. Bodi­mage, as Helényi interprets it, is dualistic in character: at the same time it presents the sur­face, the picture of man, and the canon of the structure of the human body, the geometrical rules, complete with I or X shaped additional lines. These lines are indicated by a hiatus: streaks of bare canvas are left untouched on the paintings, and similarly, the paper’s whiteness suggests the same idea on the drawings. These streaks divide the figures into two or more parts, but the figure and the hiatus both belong to the same organic structure, as if the figure were holding an invisible bar, or — on other paintings - as if the bars were the extensions of the bones of the arms. In subject matter, the graphic series and the paintings belong together, the former being a kind of preparation for the latter. The method by which Helényi draws is the highest of Hand­­zeichnung: this kind of artistic execution, this way of handling seems to have died out in Hun­gary since the age of postimpressionism. He­lényi uses several pencils of various hardness on the same drawing - chiefly soft ones —, all of them are slightly different in colour, and though at the first glance they seem to be com­posed of different shades of grey, the figures appear to be almost three-dimensional. The pencil drawings are accompanied by zinc etchings, done by Helényi’s original techno­logy. These works are naturally harder in effect than the drawings; the zinc plate brings new dimensions into the artistic expression. Helényi’s male nudes, with their muscular build-up, remind me of Gustave Courbet’s Wrestlers. There is a significant difference, of course, since the baroquesque couple of the wrestlers is entangled in a complicated move­ment, while action is totally absent from the Bodimage series, though Helényi’s previous cycle, Barbarian Geometry was characterized by dynamic, often violent, action. ,,I had to impose a lot of self control upon myself to do this”, says Helényi, ,,I can hardly wait till I can return to picture action again, but I needed this static stage anyway.” Nevertheless, the poten­­tionality of movement can be found in the Bo­dimage pictures, the play of muscles reveal a late-baroque excitement. Courbet called his „shed exhibition” Realism; Helényi could rightly follow him, calling his own exhibition realism, without the capital initial. It would be a misunderstanding to interpret the pictures of Bodimage as mere academic schoolbook illust­rations. Just like Courbet, Helényi also fights against academism - several types of acade­mism, in fact -, and in his manieristic gim­micks (distorting the oblong form of the pic­ture into a square or a rhomboid) we can detect a new component, and that is irony. A well hidden irony, but not at all tame. JÁNOS FRANK 1946 18. February; born in Budapest 1966-71 studies in the Academy of Technical Arts, Budapest 1975 Comitato Laghi, Milano, 3rd Prize 1977 Institut International des Droits de l’Humain; the Prize of Strasbourg 1977 from this year on, designs Int er press Magazin (IPM), a monthly magazine of Budapest 1979 the prize of the City Council for the Best Poster of the Year 1979 Prize for Outstanding Artistic Quality, given by the Ministry of Culture, for the design of IPM ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS 1981 with Margit Balia, András Felvidéki and György Kemény); Óbuda Gallery, Budapest PARTICIPATION IN GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1966 Fifth National Poster Exhibition; Műcsarnok, Budapest 1970 Third International Biennial Poster Exhibition; Warsaw 1971 Sixth National Poster Exhibition; Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest 1972 Pollution; Fészek Club, Budapest 1974 70 x 100 - Exhibition of 13 Young Artists; Gallery of the Institute of Cultural Contacts, Budapest 1975 Jubilee Poster Exhibition; Műcsarnok, Budapest 1975 Kilkenny Posters; Kilkenny Design Workshop, Dublin 1976 Sixth International Biennial Poster Exhibition; Warsaw 1976 Eighth International Biennial Exhibition of Applied Graphics, Brno 1976 Posters Entr’acte (Theatrical Fosters); Madách Theatre, Budapest 1977 Theaterplakate aus Ungarn; Haus am Lützowplatz, West Berlin 1977 Third International Poster Exhibition Listowel, Ireland 1978 Tendencies in Hungarian Poster Design; Polytechnical Centre, London 1978 First Biennial , Exhibition of Applied Graphics; Békéscsaba 1978 perspective” Group; Gallery of the City Council, Pécs 1979 Perspektive” Group; Szajna Gallery, Warsaw 1979 Tenth National Biennial Graphic Exhibition; Miskolc 1980 Hungarian Graphics ’80:13 Young Artists; Polytechnical Centre, Regent Street, London 1980 Rajz/Drawing; Pécs 1981 Contemporary Painting in Eastern Europe; Kanagawa Prefectuel Gallery, Yokohama — The National Museum of Art, Osaka 1981 Eleventh National Biennial Graphic Exhibition; Miskolc 1981 Exhibition of Fine Arts; Salgótarján 1981-82 Hungarian Art; Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm - Konstmuseum, Gothenburg — Konsthall, Malmö 1982 Rajz/Drawing, Pécs 1982 Art Hongrois Contemporain; Musée Catini, Marseille — Palais de l’Europe, Menton - Palais du Conservatoire 1982 (Salon Regnin), Lyon - La Maison des Congres et de la Culture, Clermont-Ferrand - L’Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris LIST OF WORKS OF THE BODIMAGE EXHIBITION PAINTINGS VIRTUAL TRIANGLE, 1978 acrylic on canvas, 50 x 35 cm DIAGONAL, 1979 acrylic on canvas, 45 x 32 cm HORIZONTAL, 1979 oil on canvas, 45 x 30 cm PARALLELS, 1980 oil on canvas, 230 x 60 cm TEARING AN OBLONG, 1980 oil on canvas, 80 x 35 cm OUTSIDE - INSIDE -DOWN - UP, 1981 acrylic on canvas, 42,5 x 30 cm TRIANGLE EXPLOSION, 1981 oil on canvas, 100 x 110 cm SEARCH FOR THE CENTRE L, 1981-82 oil on canvas, 150 x 80 cm SEARCH FOR THE CENTRE II., 1982 oil on canvas, 150 x 80 cm DISTORTION OF A STRAIGHT LINE, 1982 oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm AXIAL SYMMETRY, 1982 oil on canvas, 190 x 60 cm DRAWINGS PARALLELS, 1980 pencil on paper, 66 x 50,5 cm PARALLELS, 1980 zinc etching on paper, 46 x 11,8 cm SEARCH FOR THE CENTRE L, 1980 pencil on paper, 66 x 50,5 cm SEARCH FOR THE CENTRE I.,. 1980 zinc etching on paper, 47.5 x 21,7 cm SEARCH FOR THE CENTRE II., 1980 pencil on paper, 66 x 50,5 cm SEARCH FOR THE CENTRE I., 1980 zinc etching on paper, 22 x 22 cm SEARCH FOR THE CENTRE II., 1981 zinc etching on paper, 46.8 x 21,5 cm SEARCH FOR THE CENTRE III., 1981 zinc etching on paper, 21.8 x 21,8 cm AXIAL SYMMETRY, 1981 pencil on paper, 66 x 50,5 cm AXIAL ASYMMETRY I., 1981 zinc etching on paper, 46.5 x 14 cm AXIAL ASYMMETRY IL, 1981 zinc etching on paper, 45,7 x 15,8 cm BODIMAGE EXHIBITION OF TIBOR HELÉNYI 14. 9.-9. 10. 1982 DOROTTYA STREET GALLERY BUDAPEST V., DOROTTYA UTCA 8. EXHIBITION ARRANGER JÁNOS FRANK CATALOGUE DESIGNED BY TIBOR HELÉNYI ENGLISH TRANSLATION TAMÁS RÉVBÍRÓ REPRODUCTIONS IMRE L. JUHÁSZ TIBOR HELÉNYI 1975 Studio Gallery, Budapest (together with Margit Balia and András Felvidéki) 1978 Barbarian Geometry (as part of the Studio exhibition series); Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest 1978 Barbarische Geometrie; Galerie K, Cologne 1980 Exposition Inter­nationale des Arts Plastiques — Hongrie; (together with Tamás Hencze); Musée d’Art Moderne, Belgrade 1981 Fiction and Objec­tivity (together

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