From a basement into the Exhibition Hall

Photo: Szabolcs Csortos, UnivPécs

You have just arrived from the United States, your Glass works can be found in several galleries worldwide, one of your work of art even got into the prestigious New York Corning Museum of Glass. Are you just being on the top?

Something like that. But being an artist I might not say that I am being on the top and I cannot be satisfied either. This fact does not mean that I will be able to sell my works easily. It sounds well of course, however, the bigger market you have, the more money you have to invest in. Manufacturing and raw materials costs are very high, not to mention the transportation. Each piece takes about two months to make. I got into a circle at international level and from this point there is no way out. It is not as if I was looking for it.

You’ve tried yourself in several fields as an artist. At the beginning of your career you started with enamels, then in secondary school you studied smithery, meanwhile you experienced music and acting as well. How did you choose glass?

My early master Géza Zsigmond launched the glass studies at the University of Kaposvár. I wished to spend one year with preparation in Kaposvár before the entrance examination of the University of Applied Arts in Budapest. That was my main aim. I wanted to be a graphic designer, but when I was supposed to choose the subject Géza caught me and said: „Do you know anything about glass? No, it doesn’t matter, come here!” I knew nothing about glass at all! The following day we went out to a workshop near Kaposvár and I saw there how to blow, cut and grind glass. I was very impressed by that!

Your studio here in a basement in District Eight of Budapest has a special Eastern-European charm…

There is no doubt about that. We often gather here with friends and colleagues, it is full of life. The problem is when I see colleagues from other countries: they work under high-tech circumstances, while I have just this small 40 square meter basement. It is a real challenge! It is as if I kept a racehorse in a piggery.

Anyway, it is not bad that you are among the best known contemporary glass artists, is it?

Not at all. I was always interested  why we follow this path here in Eastern Europe. I am really fed up with complaining, crying about almost everything. Is this the Hungarian spirit? Should I stay or should I go? Is it easier or better working in abroad? The world has turned upside down with me recently. I don't even understand the situation.

Did the fact that Elton John bought your sculpture called Uranium IV in a London private gallery change the attitude of the market towards you?

It was one in a row. This piece of news appeared in a lots of medium at home, but this is an old story. It happened almost three years ago. Anyway, we do not need to overreact this, the story was very simple: a Royce-Royce stopped at the entrance of the gallery, Johnny got out of the car. He walked in and pointed at four pieces of work including mine from a five-meter distance. His assistant paid the bill by card and they went further. That was all. Elton John does not even know who  I am, meanwhile here in Hungary I was asked how long I had been a friend of him…

Is this stardom?

Yes, it is. Or the beginning of a stardom and I am afraid of that a bit. Sometimes it is really hard to handle. I feel that it is harmful to your personality as well. Now I am not the kind of outgoing, bohemian person who I was before. Practically I do not even have leisure time.

Photo: Szabolcs Csortos, UnivPécs

What will be the next step?

I need to maintain the system, and it is only possible if I invest in all fields. I have just arrived from the USA where I worked for a  month as a lecturer. Now I can’t keep my schedule, I have plenty of work to do. I have to change, it’s clear, because now I am the artist and the manager at the same time and last but not least a father of a two-year-old boy. I would like to rent a bigger studio, employ one more colleague. My wife will arrange the administration. Yes, this is a turning point.

You often mention your father in your interviews. Did he give your initial training?

My father worked as a blaster in a uranium mine close to Pécs. They worked 1200 meters deep in 48 Celsius in three shifts. He always wanted to be an artist, and woodcarving was his hobby. He had subscription for a periodical named „Művészet” that I keep until now. In a way it was my story book. I also wanted to be an artist but I did not understand the situation, because the periodicals were full of drama: blood, war, fire. How could I become an artist if there is no drama in our life, when our standard of living was good, thanks to my father’s hard work. Meanwhile my father built up two holiday homes, had hobbies like mushroom-picking and woodcarving. We  had a vineyard, too. As an adult it is incomprehensible how he could do this. But he paid a huge price for it: he died in cancer at the age of 49.

The pop-art and science fiction has a great impact on your work. Is this also coming from your childhood?

I used to have a lecture at the University of Applied Arts in Budapest with the famous sculptor, Imre Schrammel. Once he said: „What do you want with portraits, Michelangelo already made his David five hundred years ago. You are just a soft-edge TV generation.” Later I realised that he was right, really. And what is the problem with that? This might be a treasure, too. I remember we watched The Empire Strikes Back in an open-air cinema, we were excited and bought the tickets in advance. A few weeks after the premier a guy whose father worked as a truck driver showed us a Millennium Falcon model from the second level of the high-rise block. It was very impressive, but we were not allowed to go up and see it. I was disappointed. Since then I feel that I have to prepare my own spaceship. On the other hand the contemporary works of Ferenc Martin, Ilona Keserü and Ferenc Lantos were part of our education in Pécs. I was taught that we can express emotions by lines, and there can be relations between cubes. The question was, where and how I can appear in this system. So, that’s the way  my Geo-Pop art came into being.

Your works are characterized by very intensive colours. When did colours appear in your work?

At the beginning of my career I was a little bit afraid of colours. I used only black, dark blue and transparent to make feel the plastic differences. Then I had a study trip to the Czech Republic where I met a special coloured glass characterized by very intensive colours: pink, magenta, red. I was very impressed by that.

You mentioned your masters from Pecs. You are PhD student at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pécs. Did you want to come home?

Yes, but there was another aspect in my decision, too. I found a fresh and friendly atmosphere here with extraordinary chances. I can see a perspective here, where there could be a Dutch-type art academy as well, meanwhile I found the Faculty a bit fragile. Sometimes I miss the fire and some driving force. On a lecture I held in Pécs for bachelor students I heard someone sighing in the room. I told them that this level of motivation won’t bring a satisfactory conclusion. It doesn’t work that I finish my studies and then I begin to build up my career. In contrast in America the students work incredibly hard to develop if they get a chance. I  also had good experiences: at the end of the course two students came to me and told enthusiastically about their artistic experiments. That’s the way to do it!

 Photo: Szabolcs Csortos, UnivPécs

What does America do differently?

The pop-art stuck in America. Students can make a huge ice-cream sculpture with bite-marks on it by amazing technical skills. Tattooed girls in their twenties blow and touch  glass in a way which is truly breathtaking. But nobody knows why they do this or that. Democracy is so developed that you have to be careful with criticism. They aren’t used to it. In this respect I was unique in America, because I could say no, this is not good. All of these in a paid course! I wanted them to understand: there’s no need to sculpt a skateboard boy to express speed and dynamism. It can be reached by geometric forms as well.

What are you working on now?

This year we are going to go to the Netherlands with my wife to exhibit our works there. Then there will be Art Market in Budapest, BRAFA in Bruxelles, and the most important attraction of the year will be the SOFA Chicago Expo. This is also a sort of entry to the American market.

You moved from Pécs almost two decades ago. How do you see the town now?

Actually I am a visitor here. Beside my studies and the family I don’t have much time. The town changed a lot, thanks to the European Cultural Capital project. The town is multicultural and lively. In Budapest for example the kind of social life doesn’t exist like here in Pécs: sitting in a terrace, drinking wine, chatting with friends who stop for a moment even if they are in a hurry? I like it so much.

Péter AKNAI, UnivPécs International