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KELEMEN, Károly Painter, Sculptor (Győr, 31st December, 1948 - ) 1970-1974: Hungarian College of Fine Arts. 1981: Golden Prize at the 13e festival international de la peinture, Musée du Château, Cagnes-sur-Mer. During the course of the 1970’s and 1980’s Kelemen developed a unique, subjective style of creation. He was the first in the history of Hungarian Art to take up upon the crisis of Modernism, and the de-mythic Avant-Garde. The so-called Radírképek /Eraser-images/ first appeared at his exhibition held in 1979. He prepared his images with the intention of depicting the gesture of erasure or deletion, based on the document photographs of famous art personalities of the Avant-Garde movement, in the act of producing action-art pieces or performances. The process of erasure may be interpreted in a number of symbolic manners. Firstly it appears as a decorative motif, secondly it symbolizes the relationship of the new generation with the classicists of the Avant-Garde Movement, which he looks upon from a historical perspective (e.g.: Beuyseurasia, 1978; Jackson Pollock akció közben /Jackson Pollock in Action/, 1978; KártyákNyár /CardsSummer/, 1978; Trokk – Új ház és boldogság /Tarokk – New House and Happiness/, 1979). Kelemen considers this new style as a intellectual possibility and not as an absolute value, therefore he attempts to portray historical relativity. With his eraser gesture he builds upon the Informel Style of the 1940’s with an oppositional indication, instead of filling emptiness with form, he makes use of the already existent form and deletes a portion of it. His declaration made in the year of 1981 meant the beginning of a new art perspective. Simultaneously with his exhibition held in December of that year, the Új szenzibilitás I. /New Sensibility I./ opened its exhibition at the Fészek Galéri /Fészek Gallery/. Kelemen developed his uniquely eclectic style from 1982 onwards. Within the scope of these paintings he made use of a number of the techniques developed over the history of painting. His paintings make use of the techniques of Futurism, Cubism, Divisionism, and German Expressionism to the same extent as they contain elements within their composition taken from the styles of Mannerism, Baroque, or Classicism. He prepared the photographs, which constitute the basis of his creations with the perspective of the voyeur, acknowledging the fact that while he is examining a certain occurrence he himself is being looked at as well. Kelemen complements the art historical motifs with political emblems, actualizing his message. Loránd Hegyi spoke of the abstract forms found in the works of Kelemen, more specifically the concrete surroundings of those, and the portrayal of the inner and outer conflicts, found behind those, that is about these empty phrases in contradiction with theatricality, as the source of a final irony. His photographs prepared during the course of the 1980’s, in which he emphasized typical characteristics of well-known figures of history, were also prepared based on photographs, viewing the figures from the adequate historical perspective (e.g.: Che Guevara, 1980). The body parts and faces painted in an iconic manner are complemented in these works by subjective, explanatory decorative motifs. Works such as his A szabadság fekete napja /The Black Days of Freedom/ and Spiritus Sanctus - Alexander Sacharoff póza, német expresszionista táncszínház /Spirit Sanctus – the pose of Sacharoff Alexander, the expressionist German theater/, (1984) both also originate from this periodical style. From this very same year he began dealing with the repainting of photographs prepared of Etruscan and Hellenistic statues. Later on, in his works, compositions and thematic toposes of well-known figures of European Art appear. The classical works often act as theatrical backgrounds, or environments in his works. The figure of the teddy bear first appeared in his works in the year of 1985. The bears reflect upon the paintings of Chirico, Picasso, and Baselitz, and the motifs found in the works. In contrast to his previous styles Kelemen introduces newer and newer experimentation methods to his works, continuously upholding the sense of movement, which incorporates within itself an entire category of allegories, symbols, and historical allusions. He continues preparing his compositions, composed of geometrical motifs, and figures; the series of erasure images emphasizing erased gestures (this latter he refers to as his photo-copy series). He also paints images of food, copied from cookbooks in a hyperrealist manner. During the past few years he has been preparing his photorepainting works, which he had previously done in black and white, now in color. (translated by: Vladimir Végh)