16 March 2007 Bertalan Székely Studio House and Arts Gallery, Szada

Dear Guests,

Welcome to the former studio house of Bertalan Székely where for the third time tonight – in the framework of the series of exhibitions ‘Contemporary Card’ – we are happy to be present at the opening of the periodical painting exhibition that recalls appropriately the master’s creative territory.

It was very interesting to see how this space of exhibition was gradually transformed as – one after the other – the promising new paintings of Antal Kerék (for friends and family simply: Tóni) that were born from an inner feeling of the surrounding landscape of Szada found their places on the walls all around the house.

On the three horizontal panorama paintings you can recognize the skyline of Szada with some very familiar details of the landscape.

The size of the paintings, which was chosen on purpose, needs a special way of attention. The accented formal elements determine the structure of the paintings.

The church towers of Szada, respected as local sights, and the roof tiles of the small houses hiding among the bushes, or the poppies and the cloudy skies over a spring meadow start a sometimes rhythmical sometimes undulating movement as the virtuoso brush of Antal Kerék is playing. They capture the eyes of the viewer for a long moment and then as the look runs out of the frames of the picture it is captured by the effect of an artistic imagination which goes beyond reality. Kerék is ‘talking’ about the landscape as a poet would do, showing its reality as well as something more, making a step forward in mind in order to capture and feel once more the uncapturable and invisible essence existing beyond the surface.

But there is also another easily distinguishable group of the new pictures of Szada – next to the lively large-sized pictures elaborated variedly and expressively – and these are the ones worked out in great detail.

Slowly, one by one, the characteristics of local homes come to life. The red geranium planted in flower chests on the veranda. The fountain in the courtyard, the bench on the veranda, or the lace-curtain hiding the secrets beyond the window.

Using pale, light colours and brownish tones, we feel a more saturated way of expression, which is contrasted by a third group of paintings within the series, having more powerful and more dynamic colours. This suggests that a ‘multi-colour’ approach to painting is well justifiable.

I chose some lines from Mihály Babits’s Letters from Iris’ Wreath, written in 1909, that may well suite the mood of the new Szada painting cycle exhibition of Kerék Antal, Tóni.

Historian of Fine Arts (Ludwig Museum, Budapest)