CREATIVE VISUALIZATION

Brief Comments on Eszter Tari’s Pictures

Gábor Kovács

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

/Pablo Picasso/
 Brief Comments on Eszter Tari’s Pictures
Gábor Kovács

In contrast with works of art interpretation is always tentative, it can

be open, inspiring, and encouraging further research, or, to the contrary, it
can be summary, simplifying, even enforced and far-fetched. Eszter Tari’s
pictures have multiple meanings and they suggest mystery from time to
time, therefore they allow for numerous interpretative possibilities. For
this reason I intend to highlight only the elements that seem to be emphatic.
At first sight, what is apparent in Eszter Tari’s pictures is her
aspiration for presentness and the creation of transformation;
presentness in the sense that we get in touch with reality, and transformation
in the hope that we get closer to the secret, the internal structure of reality.

1. Communal Spirit, 2003

Communal Spirit, 2003
The diagonal composition of this picture(the crossing of paths) suggests
a certain direction of rotation, by which means all this might be the “imprint”
of the evolutional spiral of a single person.The shoes as relics may symbolize,
among others, a whole family - or a diferent kind of community - from
childhood to adulthood, and the communal spirit (is there such a thing?)
if there is one, manifests itself in our relationships, in the best case scenario
in a partnership, or in a less felicitous case in super- and subordination.
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 The colour of the red background tending towards orange spreads
onto the children’s shoes that are arranged in radial symmetry, highlighting
the dominant motif of the picture, the tiger-striped shoe which casts a
shadow. This latter pictorial object determines the ironic and playful rather
than unpleasant tone based on strong colour effects by “trampling down”
the other shoes. The plastic symbolism is manifested directly in various
shades of meaning, which is a characteristic feature of Eszter Tari’s pictures.

2. Vishnu’s Toe, 2003

Vishnu’s Toe, 2003

In spite of its simplicity various associations are implied in this
picture. Even its title and the spectacle are in an intriguing contrast with one
another. Instead of Vishnu’s toe what the spectator sees is only the point of a
khaki boot applied onto the picture and nearly blending into it as if it were
a relief element of a terrain traversed by the sacred rivers of the Himalayas;
one of these rivers being the Vishnu Ganga, which also symbolizes Vishnu,
God’s manifestation in his creative aspect. There are multiple references
to reality looked at from afar, to a world rich in mysteries which remains
forever foreign to the superficial spectator and evokes merely a map, just like
the homeland for an outsider in Miklós Radnóti’s poem “I cannot know”.
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 3. Guardian Spirit, 2003
Guardian Spirit, 2003
It is a surrealistic collage radiating brute force. The mixture of
transformation and plastic symbolism produces clearly a type of picture
in which a peculiar kind of magic realism is incorporated. Magic because it
transforms magically. It is realist because it imparts an internal, hidden, and
personally experienced reality with elemental force. At the same time it has a
critical edge, just like Max Ernst’s painting, entitled The Angel of the Hearth
and Home (1937) on account of its similar dynamics, construction from the
combination of internal resistance and free natural force (see the at once
rustic and ethereal motif of the shoe split in halves). But while Max Ernst’s
rebellion is typically masculine, in Eszter Tari’s pictures the other pole, the
matriarchal natural force bursts forth. This harsh, rebellious force can be
felt in The Guardian Spirit as well as in another picture of hers, entitled Life.

Max Ernst, “The Angel of Hearth and Home”, “L’Ange du foyer”, 1937

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 4. Ursa Major, 2003

Ursa Major, 2003

This picture perfectly exemplifi es the process of consistently
implemented transformation.As a result, it implies numerous interpretative
potentials. The motif of the shoe elevated into the cosmic dimension in its
concrete objectivity seems to dissolve in the interstellar space. The shoe
(or rather boot?) applied onto the picture as a transformed ordinary object
is able to symbolize not only human fallibility but also the eternal human
dilemma, the desire of the mortal for unifying with the immortal. This bold
“glance-over” already appeared in Eszter Tari’s range of subjects in an
earlier work entitled Love. See: the kinship of love, death, and meditation.

Ursa Major, Star Chart

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 5. Lifestream, 2000
Lifestream, 2000
The dynamic composition of this picture is an archetype of non-
figurative representations belonging to the topic of the “great stream”.
The human figures depicted in a similar pose - with their heads lowered,
half-kneeling and -lying - fall into the great stream of birth and death
whose aim and direction are the greatest mystery for the immortal.

6. Love, 2001

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Love, 2001
Love is the moment of awakening with its inherent potential for perfect
transformation in which unifying may occur. This is being symbolized by
the compositional form of the circle. In the circle there is no ‘you’or ‘I’, only
non-duality prevails in which one may discover his/her original face. The
circular composition also suggests that in love one’s whole personality takes
part. The momentum where the two interlocking and intertwined draperies
complement one another in colour as well (blue – reddish orange) confirms
and underlies the elevating process of the transformation of parts into a whole.

7. Tumble, 2001, Comics I-II, 2001

Tumble, 2001, Comics I-II, 2001

These works form a peculiar series, or at least they belong together.
As a matter of fact they are sketches which catch one’s eye due to their
simplicity and unpretentious ordinariness. In their making few tools and
altogether some tones were applied, with shades of the black-and- white
scale very loosely pencilled, preserving thereby their original freshness.
Because of their character there is no trace of aspiration for lastingness -
this is signalled by the fact that wrapping paper (?) was used as a base, and
in addition to the momentary impression its evocative power can affect us.
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 8. Life, 2004

Life, 2004
EszterTari is very resourceful in transforming and changing our articles
for personal use in order to undermine the constraint of the everyday ideas
associated with them and in creating aesthetic objects or phenomena with
entirely different meanings; this is well exemplified by the picture entitled
Life.The matching title with it s all-embracing meaning enables the receiving
public to interpret the content aspects of the work according to their own
intentions,yet in this particular case it canal so help the viewer‘s interpretation
by playing the role of a“verbalantitoxin”.That is,the artist,with her customary
playfulness, seems to suggest that Life as reality is always different from what
we generally think about the nature of things, or presume to know about them.
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 9. Study to “The Intrigues”, 2006

Study to “The Intrigues”, 2006

The drapery arranged tidily on the chair is not made interesting either
by the adjustment which brings out the " neness of detail, or even by the
evocation of the forms of the ancient Greek statues (torsos) with its clothes-
like folds, but rather by the dominance of its peculiar world of colours. This
world, which reminds one of the “eosinish” china sculptures, is capable of
transforming all our previous assumptions concerning drapery. Furthermore,
this transformation is supported by a de" nite orientation with the help of
the plural form of the word “intrigue” in the title: Study to” The Intrigues”.
To understand the relevance of the irony suggested here it is worthwhile to
compare the painting with Bertalan Székely’s work entitled Young Girls
(drapery study). With its clinical academism the latter may be regarded as
an excellent counterpoint of EszterTari’s powerful subjectivism.She achieves
this to the point of taking the risk of ugliness, even using it as an instrument.

Bertalan Székely, Young Girls (drapery study)

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 10. Indonesian Cat, 2007

Indonesian Cat, 2007

As a matter of fact, this painting might be a hidden, or masked self-
portrait as well, in other words, it is one of the artistic masks of Eszter Tari,
since it incorporates everything that is needed for the preservation and
functioning of the boisterous ego (or rather, artistic character) of the painter.

11. Imajinasi V., 2007

Imajinasi V., 2007
This is a painting which abounds in glowing hot colours and mythical forms.
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 The commentator cannot help relying on his free associations and
imagination (imajinasi in Indonesian): Life is like a fairytale - Hidup adalah
dongeng - in which we fail to perceive that after all we are the designers and
creators of our own fates. I think that one of the messages of Imajinasi (who
knows how many more it has?) can be summarized in a magic formula,
borrowed from Eliphas Levi: You must have “the human head, in order
to possess speech; the eagle’s wings, in order to scale the heights; the
bull’s flanks, in order to furrow depths; the lion’s talons, to make a way
on the right and left, before and behind”.

Simbion I-IV. 2009. Pécs (Hungary) - Yogyakarta (Indonesia)

Intro XXIV. 2009. Yogyakarta (Indonesia),Projections I. 2009-2010. Yogyakarta (Indonesia)

The Simbion Pictures and Other Perspectives

As I commented above on Lifestream, the subject matter of the “great
stream” becomes consummate in later pictures, such as Simbion I, Simbion
IV, Intro XXIV, and Perspectives I. What “points” are raised in these pictures
after all? In my opinion - which opinion may seem to be deviant - (Bonjour,
Monsieur Gauguin!) the only point raised is how one can be present in a given
moment and move forward with the great stream at the same (and ONLY)time.
In other words, the question is howthe greatest wealth of existence (see:
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the great stream) can be linked with the greatest extent of independence
and freedom.
The pictures presented above are convincing evidence of the fact
that Eszter Tari’s art is moving toward the spiritual (or non-figurative, if
you like) direction and is distancing itself from the spectacle. For Eszter
Tari an in-depth analysis of the forces concealed behind the appearance
of reality is facilitated by her unaffectedness, subjective way of seeing,
and her occasional playful irony. All this is held together by the red thread
(the great arcane!) of frankness, rescued and preserved from childhood.

Translated by Ágnes Surányi

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