2 October - 6 November 2004
Akos Birkas
new paintings
Wednesday - Saturday 12.30-5.30 pm /
Sunday 5 September 2-5 pm
Akos Birkas up to the end of the previous century had developed his very specific way to present a universal image of mankind.
His own emotions had played a decisive, central part in this process and the range of his arms defined the size of his twofold paintings, which showed a colorful oval form based on the human face.
Then, towards the end of the nineties, he turns around to figurative painting- with an open, communicative attitude towards the viewer, instead of of his earlier introspective images.
At first he clings to the old recipe, still combining two canvases and with a concentration on the centre of the image.
All this with one big difference: the two oval shapes have given way to two half portraits, combined into one face.
From these new paintings Birkas' friends and acquaintances look straight at us.
After some years, Birkas decides to confine himself to one undivided canvas and an elongated shape with a more or less empty middle part. In it he applies subtle layers of new, bright colours in a more direct way.
He is now looking for interesting compositions of groups of persons. His nomadic existence (Berlin, Budapest, Munich, Vienna) has made him aware of the fact that his life is not so much defined by the space he is in as by the people who surround him.
He makes photographs of those people in his immediate surroundings with whom he has a certain affinity.
These photo's he turns into a composition in pencil on canvas which he follows exactly in the painting process. In order to avoid photorealism the heads are given diverging dimensions.
By way of classical portraits, he tries to share his relations to these models with his public.
The exhibition is part of Hongarije aan Zee, the "Hungarian Cultural Season in The Netherlands 2004"
Akos Birkas (1941)
School for Fine Arts and Applied Arts Budapest, Summer Academy Salzburg, École Nationale des Beaux Arts
El Cabrito, La Gomera, Tenerife
Lives and works in Budapest en Wenen
Galleries in Berlijn, Budapest, Wenen en Parijs
works of Akos Birkas >>
Exhibition
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