Paintings of Róbert Várady

Curated by Ágnes Dobai Róbert Várady, above all, is the master of stunning surfaces. The boldness and virtuosity that he applies to his canvases makes everything that comes afterwards seem to be only complementary. His visual textures are construed from many different elaborately treated layers, which eventually formulate one homogeneous unit: the universe itself. This may sound bombastic yet his very interest lies in the cosmic and the universal. The rich homogeneity that lies within his canvases can be only vaguely described since it appears merely as a complex arrangement of layers of paint on the canvas which can be the cosmos, a plow-field from a bird´s eye view, the ether itself or a sand wall, the interior of flames, a worn-out tablecloth or anything else. His painterly manner, however, remains close to a rigorous minimalism that dominates the whole image and ultimately determines and frames the entire work. These large planes, despite their homogeneity, are amazingly versatile, which creates a contradiction: they ultimately have a whirling depth and the planes hide cosmoses and abysses... Várady is a philosophic painter. He leaves universal signs on the different layers: circles, labyrinths, mandulas, squares, ellipses, spirals, möbiuses, rhombuses. These abstract geometrical signs are the symbols of the universe and they shatter the balance of the underlying layers, creating a howling abyss. It is hard to decide whether they are fixed points and the visual cosmos is whirling behind them or if it is the reverse and they, as symbols, are hovering on the sky of infinity. In case of his new work this uncertainty is even stronger and in the motif of the circle there appears a new layer and in the middle of it, painted in a hyper-realistic style, an emblematic object unfolds. Péter Fitz