The art of
resistance
Ákos
Matzon’s exhibition Párok (Pairs) confronts visitors to the Symbol Gallery with
pairs of pictures with similar colours, motifs and brushstrokes.
“Ákos
Matzon allows the viewer to decide what they find in his pictures,” said fellow
artist István Sinkó at the opening. Such associations are sometimes
surprisingly close to what the artist himself thinks. “The small strokes in
this picture remind me of shooting stars,” said one woman. The title of the
painting is “Dock”. As the artist explained, the word dock has several
meanings: in addition to a landing pier, it can also refer to a platform for
loading and unloading, or a space station where spacecraft can dock -
surrounded by stars.
His play
with colours – and with white, grey and black – is very successful. Although
there is order, it is also disrupted which is what makes the pictures exciting.
One of Matzon’s pair of pictures is Játékváros (
For this he uses building bricks which children earlier used as toys that he
picks up at flea markets or gets from acquaintances.
The
exhibition creates a calm atmosphere, conducive to reflection. In the words of
the lawyer and publicist Imre Vörös: “We arrive at the calm of Ákos Matzon
filled with internal and sometimes inward tension.”
Art critics
tend to stress that Matzon is an architect by profession with his geometric
forms and the precision and perfection of his pictures. However, whilst it is
true that he is a perfectionist, as an artist he is mainly interested in
playing with forms and with materials. Matzon, who was born in
when he feels that a topic is resisting him and refuses to be mastered. He
views himself as being on a spiral staircase which keeps on trying to reach its
destination. Once it becomes easy to handle a theme, he stops, since it doesn’t
give him any pleasure any more. He then turns his attention to other subjects.
Symbol Gallery
District III, Bécsi út 56
Runs until 30 March
Open daily from midday to 7pm
www.symbolbudapest.hu
www.matzon.hu
