"New" Pictures
Many of the "new" pictures are self-explanatory, and require no explanation. They often represent fashionable or well-known figures. However, the photographs used for the paintings are "transformed" during the work process; following this, they are given titles, and the frozen images that originate from the restructured painted compositions become "living icons". This does not happen due to the mere omission of particular details or the alteration of the original picture, but due to Zuzu's characteristic way of seeing, and his unique mode of expression. We see self-confident models; there are fashionably-dressed, young, innocent females who are famous actresses; and then there is Zuzu, a well-groomed, young, but romantically poor painter in his socks - he is the great conjurer, a wizard. Both the smooth transitions between the brilliant colours and the perfectly uniform picture surfaces are the result of the artist applying pigment with the smallest of brush-strokes. This disguises all trace of the painting process and the image's photographic past; instead, what we see are reflections of a "mystical" present tense, frozen images that glow softly with timeless brilliance.
The current exhibition has been carefully thought out, but executed spontaneously - just like many of the works from the Zuzu-Vető period - in the way that appeared self-evident at the time. The overall concept and spatial layout was based on the evolution of Zuzu’s work. The works were arranged as agreed by Méhes Zuzu Lóránt, János Vető, Endre Vigyori Horváth, and Noémi Forián Szabó.
English text adapted from the Hungarian by Philip Barker.