István Józsa
THE MYTHICAL ORIGIN OF FORMS

Through local subject matters, Géza Székely' s paintings and graphics express the inherent tragedy of universal human existence. Elements of everyday life - mementos, "snapshots" of evanescence? The source of his copper engravings, pastels, acrylic and oil paintings is that kind of historical view, which enables him to both seize actual conditions and continue ancient traditions.

The artist surveys local values, and attempts to join them to a wider context. "Extreme individualism characterizes our age", he says. "We are aware of our estrangement but we do not fight against it any more. That is a burden, especially in art. We come from somewhere, start from somewhere, and this defines all our life, no matter where we get later. Many deny this, but they are wrong. We certainly have to accept our origin; however, we also must make the most of the treasures that... well, are not only available but offer themselves to us." The artist shows life drama by the requisites of his own narrower and wider world. His ideas elevate to the rank of artistic sign, they exist owing to the sign; behind the powerful web of lines we find universal human thoughts. For this world is not an aggregate of individuals. One plus one does not make two but it is indefinable; as one is also indefinable. Moreover, they can strengthen or weaken one another as parts of a larger totality.

"Totem", "Heritage", "Archaic rhythm". Walls, roofs, objects of country life - the viewer is shocked by the dramatic character of representation, which urges him to meditation; the objects condense memories of many centuries and become mental objects. Well, what kind of artistic attitude is that? Instead of resorting to the "pure fountain"... a warning? Actually, this time of vision, this flash of moment is a condition after life and battle; the viewer can only grasp what the traces and ruins still betray, and so reconstruct the archaic stability of former life. Past time? It is not. That would be a simple impression which necessarily changes, becomes distant and obscure. What we see here is the present as a close memory; the artist tries to catch this present. He only goes as far as the border of memory, beyond which the moment can just and still be changed.

We can grab this process in his fervent, sometimes metallic, cold paintings and in the poetically floating web of lines of his graphics not through the traditional linear order: experience - mental refining - work of art; beforehand, Székely Géza builds mental constructions, and after that tries to find motifs for his pictures in an existentially threatened world. In the relation between world and creator, the inner, spiritual resolution is primary, namely the thought that is universal, and then the motif becomes local, particular. On the other hand, among his motifs, we discover ancient symbols that become points of reference in the search. Signs. The circle. His most frequent motif, owning a synthetic semantic field, is the wheel; it has had the most extensive area of interpretation since mythological times. In one of its primary meanings is a symbol of fate: the wheel is the wheel of fate, and the often-mentioned fate is the line of historical trials and their consequences. These are "weighty pictures"; they speak about this mode of life, this fate in such a way that they are tragedies in the noblest sense of the word; that instead of being metaphors of life, they are metaphors of agony. The absence of man? Falling houses. Used tools. Immobility. Traces of the agony of the past busy life in flash pictures. Signs. The vertical, the horizontal, and the oblique. Axes, lines of force, which make up the structure of the picture, and guide the eye and thoughts of the viewer. In a labyrinth, in a psychoanalysis. According to the contemplative attitude of the creative spirit, we might have expected that the artist would disclose change to us in "picture- stories" ordered in line, but Géza Székely, owing to his chosen standpoint, seizes the vast process in its particulars and moments. He projects his vision and picture fragments on one another: branches, faces, torsos. Actually, contemplation means that we pass from one picture into another. The bits of his kaleidoscope are organized into a whole by a common characteristic: the tragic majesty of existence shown at least in pieces. The fragmentation of the graphics' space multiplies the focal points of the pictures, and develops the viewpoints of the recipient mind, from the simplest objects to catharsis, with the majesty of tragedy.

The artist's technical innovation is in accordance with this. The pastel colours are generally used for pictures that radiate calmness, quiet harmony Géza Székely paints dramatic pastels, dramatic pictures even in pastel. Therefore, the effect is due to the emphatic contours and lines of force, which guide spirit towards one idea, as the perspectives of these pictures, building one metaphor, tend downwards. "I think", Géza Székely says, that the artist's duty is to dig down to the tragic depths of human existence; he is to seize that and express it in pictures."