Works of Ferenc Lantos between 1948 and 1970

Born and li­ving in Pécs, Fe­renc Lan­tos has made himself a sig­ni­fi­cant rep­uta­ti­on on the 20th-cent­ury Hun­ga­ri­an art scene. Held on the ar­tist's 75th birth­day, this ex­hi­bit­ion pre­sents the first part of his oeuvre. It could be seen as a se­qu­el to the show de­vo­ted to the 20th-cent­ury art of the Ba­la­ton­fel­vi­dék re­gi­on (He­rend Por­ce­la­in Ma­nu­fac­to­ry and Jó­zsef Egry) in 2003. Like Pécs, this re­gi­on has for cent­uri­es, and pro­ba­bly mil­len­nia, been the fer­ti­le ground that gave life to cul­tu­re, out­stand­ing and dis­tinc­tive works of art. It is no sec­ret that we were out to draw at­tent­ion, in Bu­da­pest-cent­red Hun­ga­ri­an cul­tu­re, to the Euro­pe­an va­lues int­rin­sic to the Hun­ga­ri­an count­ry­si­de.

Fe­renc Lan­tos's art might be la­bel­led as Me­di­ter­ra­ne­an. His start­ing point was na­tu­re, and fol­lo­wing the inner logic of na­tu­re-and his ma­s­ter, Fe­renc Mar­tyn-he de­vel­oped his na­tu­re- prin­cip­led ab­st­rac­ti­on, a spe­ci­al ba­lance bet­ween the ra­ti­o­nal and the or­ga­nic app­ro­a­ches, sett­ing a spe­ci­al co­ur­se in 20th-cent­ury Hun­ga­ri­an art and mak­ing an ex­cept­io­nal cont­ri­bu­ti­on to Euro­pe­an met­ho­di­cal tho­ught.

This ex­hi­bit­ion pre­sents the be­g­in­ning and growth of that har­mony. It starts with a ju­ve­ni­le port­fo­lio from 1948 which con­ta­ins dra­wings in In­di­an ink. Some of them fea­tu­re the roun­ded forms and in­ter­con­nec­ting arcs which give a hint of the ar­tist's wide-rang­ing sense of form and his pain­terly in­te­rest in creat­ing a means of ima­gery for de­pic­ting the con­ca­tena­tions of na­tu­ral phe­no­me­na. Other dra­wings take a dif­fe­rent app­ro­ach with the amor­p­hous forms ap­pa­rently in mo­ti­on. He had by this time crea­ted his first ab­st­ract 'lands­ca­pes': sha­pe­less forms pain­ted on fib­red damp paper. These dra­wings promo­ted his pain­terly means of ima­gery from a means to co-ar­tist. Life and mo­ti­on be­came uni­ted in the con­ti­nu­o­us in­ter­fe­ren­ce of the circ­le and the squ­a­re-a fea­tu­re that went on to be­co­me Lan­tos's tra­de­mark.

This du­a­lity of his art was mar­ked by his at­ten­dance of many ar­tist co­lo­ni­es round the count­ry (Me­csek­ná­dasd, Tokaj) and his work­shop ex­pe­ri­ments in a whole range of dif­fe­rent tech­ni­ques (por­ce­la­in, ena­mel). Do­cu­ments of the evo­lu­ti­on of his art inc­lu­de Ba­la­ton lands­ca­pes from the 50s and 60s-that is lands­cape-re­duc­tions, ab­st­rac­tions of forms both na­tu­ral (circ­les: sun, pebb­les) and ar­ti­fi­ci­al (sa­i­ling boats)-as well as his more ri­go­rous, con­struc­tive and re­la­xed com­po­sit­ions which, being wa­ter­colo­urs, fea­tu­re a purer and more in­ten­sive world of co­lo­urs. Co­lo­urs come in many sha­pes and forms: el­u­sive co­lo­ur-spots and vi­go­rous co­lo­ur-bands evol­ved into a cha­rac­te­r­is­tic Lan­to­si­an co­lo­ur-idiom. Lands­ca­pes are ref­lec­ted, or port­ra­yed from above, mak­ing for an au­to­no­mous means of ima­gery. Sys­te­mi­zing his pain­terly know­ledge of the world in the 70s, his books and ex­hi­bit­ions en­tit­led Na­tu­re-Se­e­ing-Art were pre­sen­ted at the Hun­ga­ri­an Na­ti­o­nal Gal­lery in 1977. His dis­co­very of the end­less pos­si­bi­li­ti­es in­he­rent in na­tu­ral and ar­ti­fi­ci­al sys­tems took the form of a se­ri­es of paint­ings, some of which were ex­hi­bi­ted at the Ernst Mus­e­um back in 1999.

Ka­ta­lin Ke­se­rü