14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2013 -14
Artists, like barometers, have to show time-to-time the place and the situation where they are living. These paintings, which I call ‘Concerned Art’, do precisely that.
You may recall that I was painting the ‘Icons for the 99%’ in 2011. At that time I had hope that something would change but it did not. Democracy does not exist for the common men. It is the tool of a chosen few.
Now, we have an ongoing, persistent problem; there are no jobs.
Young people finish their education or their trades, like tool-and-die making, but cannot find job. Under the false pretend of Globalization all the fine paying jobs were taken away from this continent.
The human suffering due to lost jobs and resulted lost of self-respect is devastating. More and more people slide down to the level where we were in the late 20-es and early 30-es, “Brother, can you spare a dime”.
So I call this sequence of paintings ‘Icons for the jobless’.
I hope you can relate to these works.
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2013 -14
Artists, like barometers, have to show time-to-time the place and the situation where they are living. These paintings, which I call ‘Concerned Art’, do precisely that.
You may recall that I was painting the ‘Icons for the 99%’ in 2011. At that time I had hope that something would change but it did not. Democracy does not exist for the common men. It is the tool of a chosen few.
Now, we have an ongoing, persistent problem; there are no jobs.
Young people finish their education or their trades, like tool-and-die making, but cannot find job. Under the false pretend of Globalization all the fine paying jobs were taken away from this continent.
The human suffering due to lost jobs and resulted lost of self-respect is devastating. More and more people slide down to the level where we were in the late 20-es and early 30-es, “Brother, can you spare a dime”.
So I call this sequence of paintings ‘Icons for the jobless’.
I hope you can relate to these works.
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2013 -14
Artists, like barometers, have to show time-to-time the place and the situation where they are living. These paintings, which I call ‘Concerned Art’, do precisely that.
You may recall that I was painting the ‘Icons for the 99%’ in 2011. At that time I had hope that something would change but it did not. Democracy does not exist for the common men. It is the tool of a chosen few.
Now, we have an ongoing, persistent problem; there are no jobs.
Young people finish their education or their trades, like tool-and-die making, but cannot find job. Under the false pretend of Globalization all the fine paying jobs were taken away from this continent.
The human suffering due to lost jobs and resulted lost of self-respect is devastating. More and more people slide down to the level where we were in the late 20-es and early 30-es, “Brother, can you spare a dime”.
So I call this sequence of paintings ‘Icons for the jobless’.
I hope you can relate to these works.
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2013 -14
Artists, like barometers, have to show time-to-time the place and the situation where they are living. These paintings, which I call ‘Concerned Art’, do precisely that.
You may recall that I was painting the ‘Icons for the 99%’ in 2011. At that time I had hope that something would change but it did not. Democracy does not exist for the common men. It is the tool of a chosen few.
Now, we have an ongoing, persistent problem; there are no jobs.
Young people finish their education or their trades, like tool-and-die making, but cannot find job. Under the false pretend of Globalization all the fine paying jobs were taken away from this continent.
The human suffering due to lost jobs and resulted lost of self-respect is devastating. More and more people slide down to the level where we were in the late 20-es and early 30-es, “Brother, can you spare a dime”.
So I call this sequence of paintings ‘Icons for the jobless’.
I hope you can relate to these works.
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2013 -14
Artists, like barometers, have to show time-to-time the place and the situation where they are living. These paintings, which I call ‘Concerned Art’, do precisely that.
You may recall that I was painting the ‘Icons for the 99%’ in 2011. At that time I had hope that something would change but it did not. Democracy does not exist for the common men. It is the tool of a chosen few.
Now, we have an ongoing, persistent problem; there are no jobs.
Young people finish their education or their trades, like tool-and-die making, but cannot find job. Under the false pretend of Globalization all the fine paying jobs were taken away from this continent.
The human suffering due to lost jobs and resulted lost of self-respect is devastating. More and more people slide down to the level where we were in the late 20-es and early 30-es, “Brother, can you spare a dime”.
So I call this sequence of paintings ‘Icons for the jobless’.
I hope you can relate to these works.
18”W x 12”H x 4D” – Raku fired ceramic – 1999
Our careless behavior toward nature starts to backfire. The facts that there are numerous infants born without brains or with miniature heads, are the result of toxic waste, solvents etc. in the drinking water of their mother. Government are relaxing the environment rules and the results are in glass jars for medical students.
18″W x 24″H – Linoleum print – 1997
The real face of democracy shown itself.
In my eye Mr. Chretien, the then prime minister of Canada, acted like a pompous king when he was asked about the brutal handling of the demonstrators by the RCMP. ; “For me, pepper, I put it on my plate.”
I do not think that the Canadian people deserved this treatment for a well known dictator, Suharto, who was deposed by his own people in seven months later.
16″H x 20″W x 2″D – Raku fired ceramic – 1978
I think the title speaks for itself.
21″ dia. – raku fired ceramic – 2016 This plate you will feel that it is political, but what can I do if nobody talks about the ongoing disaster at the Pacific Ocean. I feel I have to, so I made a plate depicting the taking of the last fish. It will come to this, as Fukushima is spurting uncontrolled radiation into the ocean.
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2011 -12
From my experience I feel the erosion of our western society strange-fully started when my friend’s father-in-law had to close his small dressmaking shop on Spadina in late 1970es because he could not match the prices of jackets and shirts he made for Eaton’s and Simpson that the big stores were bringing in from Hungary, Poland, Romania, at that time.
Those 30 plus Italian, Portuguese ladies who worked for him were one of the first casualties of ‘The Global Economy’.
These five expressions originally were designed for some linoleum-cuts but I had difficulty to get the type of linoleum for that type of carving. It is not available anymore. So finally I’ve painted them on canvas in a style of black printing.
The first one is a worker with a closed factory, called; Global Economy – Local Despair and the followings three are the today’s result of the greed driven ‘Global Economy’ the demonstrations and the ‘Democratic’ rights to be clubbed and beaten to the ground. Finally, the last one is when the mass will have enough and they will repeat 1789 Paris.
I hope you can relate to these works.
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2011 -12
From my experience I feel the erosion of our western society strange-fully started when my friend’s father-in-law had to close his small dressmaking shop on Spadina in late 1970es because he could not match the prices of jackets and shirts he made for Eaton’s and Simpson that the big stores were bringing in from Hungary, Poland, Romania, at that time.
Those 30 plus Italian, Portuguese ladies who worked for him were one of the first casualties of ‘The Global Economy’.
These five expressions originally were designed for some linoleum-cuts but I had difficulty to get the type of linoleum for that type of carving. It is not available anymore. So finally I’ve painted them on canvas in a style of black printing.
The first one is a worker with a closed factory, called; Global Economy – Local Despair and the followings three are the today’s result of the greed driven ‘Global Economy’ the demonstrations and the ‘Democratic’ rights to be clubbed and beaten to the ground. Finally, the last one is when the mass will have enough and they will repeat 1789 Paris.
I hope you can relate to these works.
19″ dia. – raku fired ceramic – 2016 (refired) SOLD I am concerned that we disturbing too many things as we look for some better… what. We dig up some soldiers at the arctic who died in the Spanish flu in 1918 … to what for… to make a better biological weapon? So that it is why I call this work: Don’t disturb the distant past…
20″ dia – raku fired ceramic – 2016
This sketch was created in the late 80es and early 90es. By then I saw the anomalies of Globalization. So let me outline my thoughts about art and arts-man-ship. The artist is a person who is a more sensitive individual than the general public and can create a visual, literary, musical product, which the general public cannot do. Any art that the artist creates must be a demonstration of the artist emotional, mental and biological framework. As a result of this, every work is a manifestation of the artist’s life at the time when creation took place. So, in my opinion, art shows figuratively the world the artist live in and acts like a barometer registering the actions of the society. These artistic expressions hover between the two ends of creations which are at one end ‘pure beauty’ and at the other end ‘the message’. Artists should express their feelings, visions, and concerns of their time to show these qualms from a different point of view.
I believe a good piece of art is when the audience can extract certain thoughts or feelings from it, which they could use in a beneficial way in their lives. So in my work, specifically in this work, the message is the most important.
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2011 -12
From my experience I feel the erosion of our western society strange-fully started when my friend’s father-in-law had to close his small dressmaking shop on Spadina in late 1970es because he could not match the prices of jackets and shirts he made for Eaton’s and Simpson that the big stores were bringing in from Hungary, Poland, Romania, at that time.
Those 30 plus Italian, Portuguese ladies who worked for him were one of the first casualties of ‘The Global Economy’.
These five expressions originally were designed for some linoleum-cuts but I had difficulty to get the type of linoleum for that type of carving. It is not available anymore. So finally I’ve painted them on canvas in a style of black printing.
The first one is a worker with a closed factory, called; Global Economy – Local Despair and the followings three are the today’s result of the greed driven ‘Global Economy’ the demonstrations and the ‘Democratic’ rights to be clubbed and beaten to the ground. Finally, the last one is when the mass will have enough and they will repeat 1789 Paris.
I hope you can relate to these works.
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2011 -12
From my experience I feel the erosion of our western society strange-fully started when my friend’s father-in-law had to close his small dressmaking shop on Spadina in late 1970es because he could not match the prices of jackets and shirts he made for Eaton’s and Simpson that the big stores were bringing in from Hungary, Poland, Romania, at that time.
Those 30 plus Italian, Portuguese ladies who worked for him were one of the first casualties of ‘The Global Economy’.
These five expressions originally were designed for some linoleum-cuts but I had difficulty to get the type of linoleum for that type of carving. It is not available anymore. So finally I’ve painted them on canvas in a style of black printing.
The first one is a worker with a closed factory, called; Global Economy – Local Despair and the followings three are the today’s result of the greed driven ‘Global Economy’ the demonstrations and the ‘Democratic’ rights to be clubbed and beaten to the ground. Finally, the last one is when the mass will have enough and they will repeat 1789 Paris.
I hope you can relate to these works.
9″ x 12″ x 6″ – mixed media – 1983-2019
12″H x 8″W x 6D – Mix Media – 1983
I do not like this work of mine, but I had to make it! It was a bottle of whisky and some poison.
I have made a few versions of it. There was one with a noose in the same box. Another one with a gun and named bullets, for the father, the mother and the siblings.
I wanted to shock people into realization that if a nuclear war would break out between the superpowers, than humankind as a species would not survive.
This work was exhibited at the SSC annual show and everybody hated it. But I feel it was necessary to make these works.
Post note:
Twenty years later in 2003 I met with some people who had seen this work at the show and from the blue I was asked if I still have that “First Aid Kit”. I was not even connecting immediately, that they were still remembered this ‘Concerned Art’ of mine. I was really pleased with this fact.
Now I know; It was worth to make it.
16″ x 20″ – Oil on canvas – 2015 – SOLD I am not sure if this painting appeals to you. But I wanted to show that not everything is OK at the end of 2015.
We came so far from the caves of Altamira and the recent news is that the WWIII could star at anytime. How could be that we as a species cannot live in harmony.
Way is that some of us think that they are superior, deserve more, need to be served by the rest of us… because they believe God make them ‘special’ … now you know why I cannot belong to any religion.
What is it that wrongly ’wired’ in our brain…
So, what I wanted to show the harmony we could have by the flower (especially that Poinsettia is representing the holiday season) and the fruits … but should we have a gun to protect ourselves when the system stop to function. Riot, looting, food-shortage, and then I have to protect my home and loved ones. How will I (you) do that? Interestingly this painting was sold and ended up in Brazil.
24″W x 30″H – Oil (on wrapping paper) – 1993
I do not believe all the hype about “free trade”. I sincerely believe that the overall benefit of producing goods on the other side of world and then delivering them to here is not beneficial to Nature.
It is beneficial for the few who exploit the under-developed nations’ labor force. But I can see how the living standard of this country (Canada) has shrunken due to the loss of industrial works.
The statistics only say how many new jobs were created, but they do not state how many were lost. The statistics do not say the value of the lost work in $ and the value of the new jobs in $ to the general public.
Those workers who lost their jobs as machine operators or tool and die makers, because the factory moved to the other side of the world, will never regain their pride, that they can carry their family through their work.
( Read the book called “Small is Beautiful” by E.F. Schumacher and you know what I am talking about.) I know, I think too much!
14″ x 18″ with 24k gold-leaf edge – Acrylic on Canvas – 2011 -12
From my experience I feel the erosion of our western society strange-fully started when my friend’s father-in-law had to close his small dressmaking shop on Spadina in late 1970es because he could not match the prices of jackets and shirts he made for Eaton’s and Simpson that the big stores were bringing in from Hungary, Poland, Romania, at that time.
Those 30 plus Italian, Portuguese ladies who worked for him were one of the first casualties of ‘The Global Economy’.
These five expressions originally were designed for some linoleum-cuts but I had difficulty to get the type of linoleum for that type of carving. It is not available anymore. So finally I’ve painted them on canvas in a style of black printing.
The first one is a worker with a closed factory, called; Global Economy – Local Despair and the followings three are the today’s result of the greed driven ‘Global Economy’ the demonstrations and the ‘Democratic’ rights to be clubbed and beaten to the ground. Finally, the last one is when the mass will have enough and they will repeat 1789 Paris.
I hope you can relate to these works.
120″H x 92″W x 12″D – Rolled-Hammered Steel – 1985
I always try to see through the official lines.
When I was in the Army (back in Hungary) I could not believe that the “Imperialist Dogs”, as the West was called in the boot camp, would want to take my “small nothings” away. I could not see and understand why would anyone on the other side of the “Iron Curtain” would march over to enslave me. I never believed that the people on any side of this invisible demarcation line were different from one another.
When I came over to the West side of the Curtain my believe was confirmed. The people on both sides were fed with rhetoric that the other side is evil. Do you remember Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Society” statement about Russians? So in 1985 I made this political statement which showed on the red side (Russian side) the people were told that they will be liberated from the yoke of Capitalism and here on the West we were told that we would be saved from Communism. This work was on public show for two months in a busy part of Toronto as it was slowly turning around.
PS. In 1989 October when Gorbachev met with Bush somewhere at the Mediterranean Sea, I have cut this work to pieces symbolizing the end of an era separating the two sides of the Iron Curtain. Few weeks later the “Berlin Wall” was pulled down…
120″H x 92″W x 12″D – Rolled-Hammered Steel – 1985
I always try to see through the official lines.
When I was in the Army (back in Hungary) I could not believe that the “Imperialist Dogs”, as the West was called in the boot camp, would want to take my “small nothings” away. I could not see and understand why would anyone on the other side of the “Iron Curtain” would march over to enslave me. I never believed that the people on any side of this invisible demarcation line were different from one another.
When I came over to the West side of the Curtain my believe was confirmed. The people on both sides were fed with rhetoric that the other side is evil. Do you remember Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Society” statement about Russians? So in 1985 I made this political statement which showed on the red side (Russian side) the people were told that they will be liberated from the yoke of Capitalism and here on the West we were told that we would be saved from Communism. This work was on public show for two months in a busy part of Toronto as it was slowly turning around.
PS. In 1989 October when Gorbachev met with Bush somewhere at the Mediterranean Sea, I had cut this work to pieces symbolizing the end of an era separating the two sides of the Iron Curtain. Few weeks later the “Berlin Wall” was pulled down…
20″ dia – raku fired ceramic – 2016 This sketch was created in the late 80es and early 90es. By then I saw the anomalies of Globalization. So let me outline my thoughts about art and arts-man-ship. The artist is a person who is a more sensitive individual than the general public and can create a visual, literary, musical product, which the general public cannot do.
Any art that the artist creates must be a demonstration of the artist emotional, mental and biological framework. As a result of this, every work is a manifestation of the artist’s life at the time when creation took place. So, in my opinion, art shows figuratively the world the artist live in and acts like a barometer registering the actions of the society.
These artistic expressions hover between the two ends of creations which are at one end ‘pure beauty’ and at the other end ‘the message’.
Artists should express their feelings, visions, and concerns of their time to show these qualms from a different point of view.
I believe a good piece of art is when the audience can extract certain thoughts or feelings from it, which they could use in a beneficial way in their lives. So in my work, specifically in this work, the message is the most important.
51″ x 21″ – oil on (3) canvas – 2017 The subject matter of this painting is slowly percolating in me for a long time.
I did not know how to convey my most inner feelings re our times.
Everything seems OK here where we are, but our doors are open and who knows what will ‘walk over’ through there.
You may not like this picture because though seems a very idyllic morning view but what is happening around the world one needs to be prepared.
No I am not going into politics but I have a question. How far would you go for your loved ones?
18” diameter – Raku fired ceramic – 1994 (SOLD)
I made this work during the Yugoslavian civil war.
It was the shame of all mankind.
You can see, I call it MAN-KIND, yes, because men did the killing, not women.
24″H x 18″W – raku fired ceramic – 1985
12″H x 27″ W – Raku fired ceramic – 2006
Some of you may remember that in 1956 there was a bloody revolution in a small country in Europe, Hungary.
She wanted to breakout from the chocking yoke of the USSR. It was a spontaneous uprising due to the harsh and unjust treatment of the peoples. For a week or so it looked that people achieved what they wanted. The West was encouraging all action but we soon find out that it was only some lip service. The USA even stoped General Franco to send some troops to help the revolution. They were afraid to pull a fight with the ‘Russian Bear’.
By November 5th a few hundred of Russian tanks rolled back to Hungary a few thousand Hungarian had died during the fights and the West was sitting on their hand. The USSR and its rule remained for another 33 years.
So this date is part of the human history. Just type it into a search-engine and you could learn a lot about this event.
Just to make a step further. Hungarians did what the West did not do. Hungary opened its western border to the East-Germans to go to West-Germany through Austria in september 1989. This action triggered the fall of the ‘Iron Curtain’ a few weeks later. Did you know that?
30″H – Mixed Media – 1982 There were some questionable real estate sales by Olimpia York, (if I recall correctly), and this work was exhibited at the annual SSC show, raising a few eyebrows.
20″ dia. – raku fired ceramic – 2016 This sketch was created in the late 80es and early 90es. By then I saw the anomalies of Globalization.
So let me outline my thoughts about art and arts-man-ship.
The artist is a person who is a more sensitive individual than the general public and can create a visual, literary, musical product, which the general public cannot do. Any art that the artist creates must be a demonstration of the artist emotional, mental and biological framework. As a result of this, every work is a manifestation of the artist’s life at the time when creation took place. So, in my opinion, art shows figuratively the world the artist live in and acts like a barometer registering the actions of the society. These artistic expressions hover between the two ends of creations which are at one end ‘pure beauty’ and at the other end ‘the message’. Artists should express their feelings, visions, and concerns of their time to show these qualms from a different point of view. I believe a good piece of art is when the audience can extract certain thoughts or feelings from it, which they could use in a beneficial way in their lives. So in my work, specifically in this work, the message is the most important.
20″ x 24″ – oil on canvas – 2016 (SOLD)
As you may have noticed I always have to communicate something in my art. I cannot take the chisel, bend a copper sheet or take the brush without knowing what I would like to say.
Now that I had sold the “Flowers, Fruit & 0.357 Magnum”, I made another painting which may also rise your eyebrows.
One of my dear friends was working for an Italian company as the CEO in Mexico in the mid 90es. He was very successful establishing and running the company; he had some 200 people employed. He was living with his family in one of the ‘safe suburb’ of Mexico City in a gated community.
One day when they went home he had found a ‘standing’ revolver bullet on their dining table. For the first sight this bullet is a very insignificant thing by appearance but has a very serious significance. It is a way to indicate a dead threat in Mexico.
Knowing the meaning of this ‘simple warning’ he had sent his wife and two daughters back to Canada within two days and he gave up his position and left Mexico within a month.
Usually one reads this kind of stories in books but this state of affairs had happened to my friend.
Knowing his story I wanted to show the tranquility of the place with bright color of the wall, the white curtain/table-cloth, the calm sea (which cannot be seen from Mexico City) with the large yellow tulips and the fruits and contrasting this idyllic scene with a single standing bullet which after noticing it become the ‘focal point’ of this painting.
