Ilona Keserü: Hommage – Respect
Ilona Keserü solo exhibition Hommage – Respect at Mücsarnok Kunsthalle places a special emphasis on the gesture of respect. The oeuvre is extremely rich in that it commemorates important masters, contemporaries, theorists, and poets with a single image.
The artist comments: “Throughout my career, I aspire to be a continuation of our wonderful predecessors, the Masters, whom we respected, probed, and listened to so much when we were young.” At the same time, the artist is constantly reflecting on her own earlier work, returning to motifs, forms, colour combinations, and concepts.
The exhibition is divided into three parts. The first room features images related to paying homage, reflecting on the person, work, and influence of masters, spiritual friends, and relatives. These pieces are primarily large-scale paintings or painted, drawn, and inked portraits. In the second room, there is a sound installation titled Sound—Colour—Space, created by the artist in collaboration with composer László Vidovszky. In the third room, paintings and graphic sheets that are reworkings of a motif, theme or colour scheme commemorate the artist's practice.
Hommage – Respect demonstrates how self-reflection, a commitment to one's art practice and having a conscious awareness of the role of an artist, are reflected in a lifetime of work. Keserü explains: “Belonging to a profession – that I am a painter or that I will become a painter – is something that gradually develops in one's mind. One recognizes that this is a thousand-year-old activity about belonging to a particular branch of humanity that has not changed much. Many people involved in artistic creation lack this awareness”.
