Szilvitzky Margit Rajzok/papírmunkák (Helikon Gallery, 1984)

Katalin Bakos In spite of the small showroom at Helikon Gallery, the exhibition of Margit Szilvitzky is a good synthesis of her more than twenty years old activity. It is possible because her activity is characterized from the beginning by the existence of large works - defining the interior - and miniature pieces, manifesting a program. The „Drawing and paper works” exhibition belongs to the latter genre. It gives a certain kind of retrospection - the earliest work was made in 1971 - so this exhibition shows the most important problems she has concerned herself with, from the beginning up to now. Her coherence oeuvre demands to go back to the origin of some of her thoughts. The simple, common title means not only a genre definition but also a program; the program of permanent thoughtful formation and research. Margit Szilvitzky is a textile artist, her starting-point is a certain material and its usage in practice. But she is not satisfied with it - as a lot of artists in her generation who, since the Textile Murals ’68 exhibition, has begun to show interest in the fine arts. For the sake of plastic expression she uses textile as well as paper and drawing, the base of all branches of art. From the start - besides planning and teaching textile - she has analyzed, examined material, she disjointed it to fibre, courses, graphic- and space elements and looked for its natural and of fine arts equivalents. Her first tapestries were made in terms of the organic, natural form, preserved the original decorative character of textile, but besides they showed new material and technical combinations. The rustic material, the highlighted and not hidden sewing stand out against minute particulars, against dyeing with sour harmony and plajdul forms. Their contrast results the liveliness of the tapestries. At this exhibition her first period is represented by the graphic outline made to the Living form series. At the exhibition in the show­room of the Institute for Cultural Relations textile is similar to the way a dress is used, but it has already begun to occupy space. At her exhibition in Salamon Tower at Visegrád, she went on with this conception, the rusticly formed textile represents a historical atmosphere, as a costume it indicates figures, as a decorative tapestry it recalls the atmosphere of old interiors and has a pictorial symbol. From the middle of the seventies the conception, that textil also obeys to the regularity of graphic and plastic art, has appeared in a new form, consequently textile can express the basic plane- and space relationships. This conception was followed when she created her monumantal, constructive spatial textiles. By using geometrical elements, reflecting plane forms into space and placing together space and plane forms, looking for the connection between plane and space Szilvitzky has joined to the constructivist traditions, her art is analogous to the problem of minimal art. Her textile plastics and pictures are created by an everyday handling of material, they are obvious, clear pieces. Folding, ripping, ironing, stitching bring about clear but not mechanical forms. The genre of mini-textile gives a good sphere for Szilvitzky’s deliberate, analytical view. It allows to express clearly plastic elements as spatial strati­fication, hollow and cover, rhythm, series etc. In her activity graphics and paper works have similar functions to mini-textiles. Her monumental textile works bear the signs of constructivism, her miniatures are more related to concept art, they are the expressions of her artistic program. Besides searching basic forms and constructing more and more complicated space forms, Szilvitzky has shown great concern about irregular forms, material obeying only its own regularity. Her oldest paper works exhibited here ’’Process Representa­tion” and the ’’Finding of the Square” - show symbolically the formation of raw material and its forming into a system. Her work entitled ’’Comparison” concerns even a more general artistic problem: the question of reality and reflection, reality and illusion. Her drawing made for the ARTEDER ’82 exhibition is a true ars poetica up to now. The exact cross hatching represents rules, regularity, the hand and sweeping scribble symbolize spontaneous, irregular elements. All these create an expressive entirety. In this artistic program rational planning, the independent sphere of material and the artist’s subjective personality are all determinant. These three basic motives can be seen on the paper works and pictures exhibited at Helikon Gallery. The crumpled paper surfaces fold into the measurable, almost measured off linen surfaces divided by stripes, bands and strips. This process is reversible somewhere, and the regular thing comes out of the irregular one. Or the paper cover comes off the scribbles. The graphical analogy of it: the edge of the folded paper becomes the divid­ing line of the stripes, drawn with a ruler, and hatched scribbling. The precedents of these miniatures are large, square applied textile pictures representing the symmet­rical cover, box opening and turning to space: they reveal the „disorder” of materials collected in them. To a certain extent, the characteristics of paper similar to textile are effective on her paper works- easy mouldableness, pliableness, crumpleness, splitting, soft surfaces. The characteristic features of paper can be noted: more rigid line of break, growing intensity due to folding. And the most important thing is that paper can be the medium of signs, letters. These are either sloganlike and help the expression of her program, or they are simply playful, associative elements referring to the circumstances of the origin of the work. Margit Szilvitzky’s new miniatures seem to draw off the earlier puritan strictness. The surfaces of the stripes, applied to the linen, are often colour or metallic, sometimes decorative and playful. The artist more deeply emphasises the closed formation ofthe picture, so the earlier kind of process has lost its importance. The stitched up self­­portrait photo, in a diagonal stripesystem, shows a kind of pictorialness and indicates a more subjective mode of expression at the same time. Now Szilvitzky inserts into the former plane-space investigation the element of lyric confession, too. Consider­ing the symbolic, emblem-like „establishments” it is the other extreme pole of this wide range exhibition. The summary affords an opportunity to step forward several directions. But Szilvitzky’s suggestive conciesness is certain to remain unchanged in the future. Drawings Graphic studies to the ”Living form" series, 1971 paper, pencil, collage, 51x68 cm Black-Blue pencil, 50x70 cm Grey Folded Drawing No. 1-3 paper, folding, pencil, each, 50x70 cm Breakline No. 1-2 paper folding, pencil, each 50x70 cm End/Less Blue, 1982 pencil, 51x68 cm Colour Folded Drawing pencil, 50x70 cm 0 Line colour pencil, paper-crumpling, 57x68 cm End/Less Black pencil, 50x70 cm Forever, 1981 pencil, 50x70 cm In to way, 1983 colour pencil, 49x64 cm Grey Drawing I., 1983 paper crumpling, pencil drawing, 51x68 cm Grey Drawing No. 2, 1983 paper crumpling, pencil drawing, 51x68 cm Serpentine, 1983-84 drawing, paper, 51x68 cm Paper works Comparison I-IL, 1977 folding, pencil, each 65x65 cm Process Representation. Levels, 1977 paper, 65x65 cm Finding of the Square No. 1-3, 1975 torn, folded, paper, each 51x68 cm Paper work No. 1-2, 1976 torn, folded, paper, each 50x70 cm Paper pictures Green Stripes, 1983 crumpled paper, drawing, 20x20 cm Grey Stripes, 1983 crumpled paper, drawing, 20x20 cm Orange paper, textile, 39x23 cm Colourful Stripes paper, textile Silver Stripes paper, textile, 39x23 cm Pressed Strip Golden paper, textile, 20x20 cm Pressed Strip Blue paper, textile, 20x20 cm Pressed Strip Orange paper, textile, 20x20 cm Strip Line stitched, crumpled paper, strip, 51x68 cm Silver Strip crumpled and folded paper, 51x68 cm Stripped Portrait crumpled, torn paper, sewing, 51x68 cm Objects Paperobject No. 1-3, 1979-84 folded paper, 20x20 cm Drawings /paper works Exhibition of Margit Szilvitzky textile artist 21. June-15. July 1984. Helikon Gallery, Budapest, V., Eötvös Loránd u. 8. Catalogue and installation: Katalin Bakos Catalogue design: Károly Schmal Photo: László Lelkes ("Finding of the Square": Géza Molnár) Responsible editor: Print:

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