Sándor Molnár’s original, exuberantly rich and precisely constructed painting, which ignores everyday life, yet captures the fullness of human existence, can put the viewer in an uncomfortable position. Where are the familiar topical issues, social problems, media awareness, and the influence of contemporary world trends? His painting seems to transcend time: he is not affected by ordinary life, because he is not exploring events that are taking place on the surface of the individual and collective consciousness, but rather the world of the collective unconscious. From the very beginning, his aim was to create a purely intellectual painting - inspired by the teachings of his chosen master, Béla Hamvas - which could establish the unity of the world in the work, transcending representational, socially representing or abstract notions of painting. If we are looking for his closest intellectual-artistic kin in modern Hungarian art, we can perhaps find him in the person of Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka. Molnár expressed his relationship with him as follows: „I wanted to capture modernity, but I wanted to do it in a way that was valid for me. In a way that Csontváry alone has managed to achieve in Hungary. He is a true Central European artist, he has created a modern, personal, independent art, and his quality is on a par with any Western European or American artist.”
Our exhibition reveals the magic and aura of his works in the most complete form so far. According to Molnár’s unique artistic and life programme, the painter’s yoga, the series of works is divided into five units based on the elements Earth, Water, Fire, Crystal and Air, which also represent the chronology of their completion. The impressive array of paintings is complemented by Molnár’s plastic art and material studies.
Curator: Miklós Sulyok
Assistant curator: Dóra Dekovics
The cover image is Sándor Molnár's painting, titled Metamorphosis (Hommage à Popiełuszko) (1985).