Not so long ago, the canonical history of conceptual art from the 60s and 70s was a narrative circumscribed to North American and Western European artists. Thankfully, though, since the late 90s the raconteurs of art history have broadened their repertoire, and conceptual art made in Eastern Europe – among other places that aren’t the homelands of Sol le Witt or Richard Hamilton, respectively – has been granted much-deserved space in our museums and galleries. Given that it’s the 100th anniversary since the Russian Revolution, this year in particular has seen numerous exhibitions worldwide dedicated to artists from the former Soviet Bloc. And as the Venice Biennale unfolds, over in London the quietly dignified gallery, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, is in its final week of paying tribute to the representative of the Hungarian Pavilion, Tibor Hajas (1946 – 1980).
The filmmaker, performance artist and poet may have died tragically young, but Hajas is considered to be one of Hungary’s most important artists of his generation. At a time when the Soviet authoritarian regime had a stranglehold over its people, as the Austin/Desmond show highlights, art for Hajas was a matter of life or death. In his performances documented in small-scale photographs by collaborator János Vető, Hajas’ naked body thrashes a backdrop of violent paint markings that seemingly trace his own frantic actions. The desperation communicated in these ‘Flesh Paintings’ cannot be severed from their political and social context. Inspired by the Viennese Actionists and the medium of body art galvanised by his peers, including Marina Abromovich , Hajas’s unorthodox forms of expression were as close to breaking free from the oppressive dogmas of the state as was possible in art at this time.
Notably, nearly all of the photographs in this exhibition were made within the domestic confines of apartments, the only private space in a culture where the state wanted all spaces to be public. Apartments also served as salons for nonconformist artistic communities, and photography, which could easily be exhibited (and hidden if necessary), was, for Hajas, the prime means by which his naked performances and large-scale paintings could be shown. Upstairs meanwhile, a coinciding exhibit presents a triptych of images by Hajas’ contemporary, the Austrian artist Valie Export, showing a man huddled on a public pavement. Bringing the question of private/public space to the fore, the photographs also echo Hajas’ preoccupation with the threshold between art and life: overlaying each image is an abstract white triangle that recalls Malevich’s avant-garde vocabulary, and indicates the urgent need to find new possibilities of communication beyond the status quo. No doubt you’ll leave the show hyper-aware of the agency your own freedom of expression.
Sooanne Berner
Sooanne Berner is a Sales & Marketing Executive at MACK, in London, UK.
Tibor Hajas : Action Works
19 May 2017 – 30 June 2017
Austin / Desmond Fine Art
68-69 Great Russell St.
Bloomsbury
London WC1B 3BN
United Kingdom
