Bán András
SPN könyvek ajánló
Bán András
The Daring Adventures Of Antal Lux
When the new stream of Miskolci Galéria started six years ago, just about the same time when Antal Lux’s video Szintetikus cseppek (Synthetic Drops) was on screen here, we could guess that the oncoming years will not be about dignity and rectitude in this country. In my opinion, for a museum in this situation there was only one way to go: looking well into the future and address those teenagers who we have not managed to fully spoil yet. Hence, I created the strong museum education programme of Miskolci Galéria along this idea, which made three possible directions available. One was to introduce children to the material we put on the walls here. I could not see much point in that: any textbook-like knowledge is horribly unfamiliar to teenagers today. The two other options both seemed promising. To help them get an insight to the heart of contemporary art in an active way through everyday solutions, advertisements, the internet, or to start from the basics. These two ways are so diverging that they cannot be followed at the same time. I regretted it a bit. After long contemplation I chose the first method.
What characterizes Antal Lux’s works, among numerous other important artists, is the systematic use of the modernist visual approach, grabbing the basic experience, the question about the form, the exploration of all possible ways of visual expression. It was possibly Paul Klee who first put this in words on the pages of his book Pedagogical Sketchbook. “Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.” – a much quoted line.) His sentences were continued by György Kepes, Rudolf Arnheim and many others since then, e.g. the textbook writers of the better breed. If the museum education of Miskolci Galéria had followed this path it could have built firm foundations for the experiments of forming by the works of artists like Kassák, Dezső Korniss, or Dóra Maurer along with their predecessors and contemporaries in Europe. This path is disciplined, not loud at all, its playfulness requires sensitivity, every step is built on the previous one; the unity of the form is distinctive.
If it had happened like this, Antal Lux could have played an important role. We know and mutually respect each-other since the beginning of time and he has been sending his videos and catalogues to Miskolci Galéria one after the other with an open heart for six years now.
Antal Lux profoundly wants the logic of each of his works to be unveiled, so that we understand every piece though their construction, playfulness, flawless appearance and also through the magic of occasional accidental solutions.
His present, although for me a bit belated exhibition, in Miskolc is a very important piece in the ethos of SPN. It is a fine selection of problems about shape and colour. The exhibition does not represent the whole lifework of the artist, which would require a much bigger space than this. Hence, what has just been said about him does not cover all aspects of his work either and is only about these pieces of work around us. The wisdom of his 80 years, his experience of critical times in local history, his wild adventures throughout numerous genres – this is how much of that fits in one room. And this is how much fits on this honouring page.
(Speech given at the opening of Antal Lux's exhibition „Szín-tétikus" in the Herman Ottó Múzeum−Miskolci Galéria on 27th February 2014)