Budapest, Karinthy Szalon, 20. September 2023. – 13. October
Karinthy Salon will present an outstanding selection of István Pető’s paintings titled Overlaps in September and October of 2023, following the spring exhibition of his prints at the MissionArt Gallery.
„«Je ne suis qu’un peintre-graveur. / ‘I’m just a painter-engraver,» goes the seemingly simple artistic credo of István Pető. Take a more careful look, though, and it will become evident that this self-identification reveals deep layers of his personality and his entire artistic outlook.
This is because he consciously denies himself the ‘artist’ title, not wanting to identify with a concept that has changed repeatedly and radically by the 21st century.
By his own account, mastering painting was a long learning process for Pető, who by the early 2000s had matured his autonomous formal idiom. Rather than spectacular turns, his career is marked by consistent development and minuscule changes of direction. There was one decisive moment, though, that set a new course for Pető’s art and that was when the figure started to dissolve in the painterly surface. […]
Whether it is deliberate or not, Pető cultivates an abstract art that conceals motifs. Though his works are not narrative, they are not abstract either: non-figurative and gesture-based, they externalize the traits and current state of personality while they are primarily based on the reality we see, especially the forms of nature.” – is how art historian Noémi Szabó describes the artist István Pető. And the artist himself has this to say about his creative method:
‘I like to compare the making of my paintings to the building of a pyramid. To build a pyramid, you need building materials, stones. I build with colours and brushstrokes. The stones of the first layer form the base. How you go about the second layer is determined by the first. And then comes the third level, and so on, and so forth. Painting works the same way. The brushstrokes that follow the first one are less free, because you have to take into account what is already there. Construction ends when the last stone is placed on top of the pyramid. I too complete the canvas with a final brushstroke. The problem is you never know where the last stroke will end up and what form it will take; unlike in the case of the pyramid, where the last stone has its place, in the painting that place is always to be found.’
The title of the exhibition refers to the layers displayed in the paintings, which, sometimes on a larger surface, sometimes with calligraphic lines and traces of writing, indicate their equality, but also their interplay between hiddenness and revelation.
The exhibition entitled Overlaps presents a selection of István Pető’s paintings from the last ten years, mainly close to lyrical abstraction – including his large works like his diptychs – which form a prominent and essential part of the oeuvre of István Pető, who has been living in Saint Denise, near Paris, since 1984.
István Pető was born in Mezőkövesd (1955), graduated as an engineer, then he studied arts first at the College of Applied Arts in Budapest, then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris as a free student. In his art and creative activity, etching and painting are constantly present. In previous years, he has had several solo exhibitions in Budapest (Young Artists Club, 1990; Octogon Hall, 1993; French Institute, 1995; Dorottya Gallery, 2005) and in Paris (Galerie Saint-Paul, 1991; Galerie Regine Deschenes, 1992; Galerie Atlantide, 1995; Galerie Katryn Boudet, 2000 and 2001). His works can be found in private and public collections. István Pető is the artist of the Varfok Gallery.
Máthé Andrea
