User:Janos Kalmar

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JANOS KALMAR

FOR MANY DECADES, SCULPTOR JANOS KALMAR HAS EXCLUSIVELY BEEN INVOLVED IN RAISING PLASTIC ROBLEMS, IN QUEERYING THE EXISTENTIAL MODE AND EFFECTS OF MASS SET IN SPACE, FORM SET IN SPACE, IN SHAPING THE SCULPTURAL OBJECT. THIS ARTIST - WHOSE WORKS HAVE BEEN ON THE HUNGARIAN AND INTERNATIONAL ARTISTIC STAGE FOR NEARLY THIRTY YEARS - HARDLY, OR JUST ACCIDENTALLY MAKES MONUMENTS (IF AT ALL), HE DOES NOT WORK FOR COMMISSION: HE DOES NOT CONSTRAIN THE TRICKS OF HIS TRADE, DOES NOT BOW HIS HEAD TO REQUESTS, DOES NOT PERFORM PROGRAMMES FORMULATED BY OTHERS. HIS AUTONOMOUS WORKS SAFEGUARDING THEIR INDEPENDENCE FASTIDIOUSLY ARE COMPOSITIONS STANDING ALONE OR IN GROUP OF MUTUAL INTERDEPENDENCE INDUCING CORRELATIONS IN INTERIOR SPACES: THEY ARE SCULPTURES, SMALL SCULPTURES, SMALL-SCALE SCULPTED WORKS, MEDALS, PLAQUES. A KALMAR WORK IS A PECULIAR FORM IMBUED BY LIVELY SPIRITUALITY, BY THE IDEA, LIFTED INTO METAPHORIC HEIGHTS, AN ALLUSION TO REALITY NOW AS DISSOLVING SCAPS OF MEMORIES, NOW AS CRYSTALLIZATION. WHAT IT ALWAYS IS IS THE PLASTIC PROJECTION OF AN ALWAYS NEW QUALITY, ALWAYS NEW IDEA CLAD IN A TAUT UNKNOWN FORMAL IDIOM. A KALMAR SCULPTURE IS A BODY REDUCTION OBEYING THE COMPULSION OF POETRY: IT SHEDS DETAILS NOT ONLY FROM THE SURFACE BUT BANISHES THEM FROM THE STRUCTION, THE CONSTRUCTION, CONCENTRATING ON THE QUINTESSENCE; IT EXPRESSES THE PITH, THE TACITURN, BARE ESSENCE. ACTUALLY, JANOS KALMAR'S WORKS ARE IN THE LINE OF THE CLASSIC TRADITIONS OF SCULPTURE: THE SUBJECT AND AVOCATION OF THIS BRANCH OF ART IS ORIGINALLY THE SHAPING OR REPRESENTATION OF THE HUMAN FIGURE IN THE FIRST PLACE, ITS TRANSFIGURATION VIA REPRESENTATION. THEY ARE ALSO TIED TO CLASSICISM BY THEIR OBJECT-LIKE EXISTENCE, THEIR BEING PLACED IN SPACE, AND ALSO BY THE EXECUTION: THE OBJECTIFICATION IN BRONZE. HIS FORMATIONS ARE ALSO STANDING, SITTING, RECLINING FIGURES THAT ARE AT THE SAME TIME BLADE-EDGES, JOINTINGS OF THIN, LONG PLANAR ELEMENTS, BROKEN AXES DEFINING THE POINTS OF INTERSECTION. JUST FAINTLY SUGGESTIVE OF THE FIGURE OR ITS PARTS WITH VAGUE ALLUSIONS TO A HEAD, A TRUNK, A LEG, HIS FORMATIONS CAN ALSO BE INTERPRETED AS ABSTRACT CONSTRUCTIONS. UNDERLYING THIS AMBIVALENCE IS THE CONCRETE VERSUS ABSTRACT DILEMMA FUELLING THIS KIND OF SCULPTURE: HOW TO CONVEY THE ORGANIC THROUGH CONSTRUCTIVE, ALMOST ARTIFICIAL, AND GEOMETRICAL, RIGID ELEMENTS EXCLUDING LIVING PULSATION; HOW TO GET THE SUBTLE, SENSITIVE PLANES, PLANAR STRUCTURES HARDLY COALESCING INTO BODIES IN THEIR PHYSICAL EXPANSE TO REFLECT AND ANIMATE ORGANISMS. THE INTRIGUING OSCILLATION OF THE WORKS IS PRESUMABLY CONCEIVABLE IN THIS AMBIVALENCE: AT THE FORMAL LEVEL THE QUESTION IS NOT DECIDED BY THE ARTIST: HIS SCULPTURES ARE OPEN COMPOSITIONS NOT BLOCKING INTERPRETATIONS. MORE MYSTERIOUS THAN THIS PRIMARILY FORMAL DILEMMA IS THE RANGE OF IDEAL/CONCEPTUAL IMPLICATIONS AND MOMENTS. THE NEARLY TWO AND A HALF METERS TALL LARGE SITTING FORM SUGGESTS A SEATED FIGURE BUT IT CANNOT BE UNEQUIVOCALLY DECLARED THAT IT IS A SCULPTURE OF A SEATED FIGURE, KALMAR VENTURED SO DEEP INTO THE REALM OF ABSTRACTION. IN THIS WORK THE FIGURE AND THE SITTING POSITION HAVE MERGED SO THAT NO SEPARATE SEAT WAS NEEDED. COMPARING THIS SITTING STATUE WITH INNUMERABLE SCULPTED FIGURES REPRESENTED IN SITTING POSTURE IN THE MILLENNIA OF ART HISTORY, ONE MUST DRAW THE CONCLUSION THAT THIS IS NOT THE REPRESENTATION OF A SITTING FIGURE BUT OF SITTING ITSELF; THE MONUMENT OF A STATE OF SITTING. THE MEDITATIVE WORK ALSO IMPLYING THE PRECEDING BODY POSTURE OR STATE AND THE SUCCESIVE POSITION THAT WILL ELIMINATE THE SEATED POSE (STANDING UP OR RECLINING) IS THE SCULPTURE OF TENSE CALM, REPOSE READY FOR ACTION, FORCING THE VIEWER TO CONTEMPLATE THE SITUATIONS AND CONNOTATIONS IMPLIED BY THIS BODY POSITION. SITTING HAS MANY FORMS AND POSSIBILITIES. BY THE SAME TOKEN, JANOS KALMAR'S SCULPTURES OF STANDING AND RECLINING FIGURES ARE PLASTIC SYNTHESES UNFOLDING THE BARE CONNOTATIONS OF STANDING AND LYING IN WHICH THE FIGURES ARE NO LONGER NECESSARY. KALMAR'S SCULPTURES OF SITTING, STANDING AND LYING ARE MAJESTIC SCULPTED REFLEXTIONS, EMBODIMENTS OF EXPECTATION DISSOLVED IN MEDITATION, EXISTENCE TRANSPOSED INTO TIMELESSNESS, A STATE OF ALERT PROJECTED INTO THE INFINITE. JANOS KALMAR HAS ACTUALLY BANISHED MASS, CLOSEDNESS, COMPACT BLOCKS FROM HIS EARLIER SCULPTURAL ART CHARACTERIZED BY BLOCKS SURROUNDED BY UNDULATING SURFACES, BY GENTLY MODELLED FORMS. HE PUTS HIS SLENDER COMPOSITIONS STRUNG ON DEFINITE AXES OF MAINLY VERTICAL ACCENTS (SOMETIMES DEVIATING FROM IT, TURNING HORIZONTAL) INTO PLANES, REVERSED PLANES AND SHARP BLADE-EDGES ENFRAMING THE PLANES. HIS SCULPTURES ARE NOT BODIES PUT INTO SPACE BUT FLASHES OF BLADES TOUCHING, SLIGHTLY WOUNDING SPACE. BENEATH THE PLANES OF THE SCULPTURES, IMPLIED BY THE PLANES, UNDER THE SMOOTH, SOFTLY LUSTROUS SURFACES STATES OF EXISTENCE EMERGE IN THE DOMAIN OF MEANINGS CONCENTRATED BY THE FIGURES AND THEIR POSTURES, SUGGESTED BY ALLUSIVE SIGNS: CRUELTY AND TENDERNESS CLASH, LOGICAL THOUGHTS AND SUPPRESSED OR BURSTING WAVES OF EMOTIONS ARE CONFRONTED. THERE ARE NO CONCRETE MARKS, NO REFERENCES TO AGE, PLACE, CIRCUMSTANCES; ALL THERE IS, THE BODY DEPRIVED OF EVERYTHING: THE FIGURE AND THE BODY OF THE OBJECT. THIS IS RIGOROUS, HARD LYRICISM: SILENCE, IMMOBILITY, CONSTANCY. INDEED, AS IF TIME HAD COME TO A HALT.

Tibor Wehner -Introduction to the MORPH group catalogue 05.2006