Lóránt Zuzu Méhes - A Retrospective Exhibition

Ló­ránt Zuzu Méhes was born in 1951 in the small town of Sza­bad­szál­lás, which can be found in Bács-Kis­kun County, Hun­gary, 80 ki­lo­met­res south of Bu­da­pest by rail. He grew up in the nearby town of Kis­kun­fél­egy­há­za, where his ele­men­tary scho­ol tea­cher en­co­u­rag­ed him to take up art. In his early teens he moved to Bu­da­pest to en­roll at the Török Pál Tech­ni­cal Col­l­e­ge for Fine and App­li­ed Arts, where he was to study for the next five years. His young tea­cher, Ákos Bir­kás, rem­em­bers that "Zuzu" was a mag­ne­tic per­so­na­lity, free-spi­ri­ted, and head­strong, "just like Jim Mor­ri­son". Whil­st at col­l­e­ge, Zuzu made a num­ber of fri­ends who were to play an im­por­tant role in his life, inc­lu­ding the highly-re­gar­ded film di­rec­tor Gábor Bódy. It was th­ro­ugh Bódy that he was int­ro­du­ced to the avant-garde art scene of Bu­da­pest in the late 60s. He be­f­ri­en­ded the pain­ter and gra­phic ar­tist Lász­ló Méhes in 1971, and pain­ted two black and white pho­torea­list works ins­pi­red by an art album that int­ro­du­ced Ame­ri­can Pho­toreal­ism. Fol­lo­wing this he crea­ted a num­ber of port­ra­its, inc­lu­ding a paint­ing of his own iden­tity card.

Be­fo­re at­tend­ing the Hun­ga­ri­an Aca­demy of Fine Arts he was conscrip­ted to the army, where he met his wife-to-be Ma­ri­et­ta. When re­le­as­ed, he stu­di­ed art res­tora­ti­on at the Aca­demy, and pro­du­ced pho­torea­list pic­tu­res for his exams. After two years he took a year off, and when he re­turned he swit­ched to study gra­phic art. His years studying gra­phic art are best cha­rac­te­ri­zed by a plan for a bill­board ad­ver­ti­se­ment en­tit­led Ener­gia­ta­ka­ré­kos­sá­gi pla­kát­terv [Bill­board Ad­ver­ti­se­ment for Sav­ing Energy]. The work de­picts the ele­ment ins­ide a light bulb as a bur­ning 100 fo­rint note. Zuzu also par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the Rózsa presszó [Pink Pres­so] ac­ti­on art group, and in 1976 he crea­ted Fák­lya [Torch], along with the ar­tist And­rás Koncz. Both men dip­ped their hands in pet­rol, and set fire to them, po­sing as mo­dels for each other's ca­me­ra.

The "Zuzu-Vetõ Era"

Zuzu be­f­ri­en­ded János Vetõ in the early 1970s. Vetõ was an ex­pe­ri­men­tal ar­tist, pho­to­gra­p­her, poet, and ly­ri­cist, and wor­ked for a num­ber of well-known con­tem­por­ary Hun­ga­ri­an bands. In 1980, on New Year's Eve, the two began dra­wing to­get­her on A4 paper with a felt tip pen. This led to a se­ri­es of now-lost dra­wings en­tit­led Más [Dif­fe­rent]. They per­for­med their first piece of col­la­bo­ra­tive ac­ti­on art in 1981, which was vi­de­o­ed by their fri­end Sza­bolcs Szi­lá­gi. The se­arch is still un­der­way for a copy of that video. Howe­ver, the work Ne­ut­rin-ócska [ro­ughly "Ne­ut­rin-or­rib­le"], which comp­ri­ses of a num­ber of pho­tos that have been pain­ted on, also do­cu­ments this work. The two ar­tists mime an event be­fo­re a pre-pro­du­ced backg­round with masks and boxes on their heads. They stuck a pain­ted circ­le with "cor­ners" cut out of paper on the backg­round. This was to be­co­me a re­cur­r­ing motif in later works. Zuzu and Vetõ often based their con­cepts on wit­tic­isms, as­so­ci­a­tions, and con­versa­tions, but the works them­sel­ves were re­a­li­zed wit­ho­ut com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on or rest­ric­ti­on. "I drew a line, János fi­nis­hed it", as Zuzu said, and of co­ur­se, the op­po­site was also true. They mixed So­ci­a­list sym­bols with those of an­ci­ent or re­li­gi­o­us cul­tu­res, used ob­jects to crea­te their own sym­bols, and used words in an emb­le­ma­tic way (e.g. "red star", "sick­le", "ham­mer", "fac­to­ry", "trac­tor", "heart", "skull", "bone", "mag­net", "an­ten­na", "rocket", "spa­ces­hip", "man", "woman", "scho­ol", "pyra­mid", and "altar"). The pair wor­ked to­get­her until 1986, using the names Zuzu-Vetõ, Zuzu-Ska and Zu­zu­Kí­na at both na­ti­o­nal and in­ter­na­ti­o­nal ex­hi­bit­ions in Aust­ria, Ger­many, Great Bri­ta­in, Po­land, Fin­land, Den­mark, and Cuba.

"Mys­ti­cal" Pic­tu­res

Az is­te­ni sze­re­tet ol­tá­ra [The Altar of De­vo­ti­on to God] is a work that was crea­ted fol­lo­wing a vi­su­al phe­no­me­non ex­pe­ri­en­ced du­ring a house party in 1984, and exp­res­ses the se­arch for God. The wings of the gil­ded altar comp­ri­se of twel­ve co­lo­ur pen­cil dra­wings in gol­den fra­mes which rep­re­sent "man­da­las". The dra­wings were crea­ted over a pe­ri­od of seven years as works of me­di­ta­ti­on. We may see "ob­jects of wors­hip" lined up on the altar's shel­ves, inc­lu­ding a "peace pipe"; the work rep­re­sents a hi­e­rarchy of re­li­gi­o­us con­vic­ti­on which was de­vel­oped du­ring a pe­ri­od studying Krish­na cons­ci­o­us­ness, Ti­be­tan Budd­hism, and the eso­te­ric and mys­ti­cal doctri­nes of Catho­lic­ism. Other types of mys­ti­cal ima­gery inc­lu­de "vi­sions", rep­re­sen­ted in a re­a­lis­tic, al­most plas­tic way, and "con­cepts", which have un­der­gone a pro­cess of ab­st­rac­ti­on to form sym­bols.

"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.

2007. August 31. - September 30.

Ernst Museum

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2007. August 21. - October 6.
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2007. September 6. - September 8.
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