Self Portraits At The Gallery

At the end of last month, I visited the last exhibition of this season. This gallery is closing for summer vacation soon and will open again only in August. I didn't want to miss the last one, so I went to visit it, right after the opening. As usually happens, I had no idea what I'm walking into, which is the best approach in my opinion, because you step in without expectations and you step out with an amazing experience, instead of disappointment.

It was a solo exhibition of Pál Nagy, a very talented painter, who has shown me another angle of art I didn't know before. You'll see why I say that shortly.

Usually, when I step into a gallery, the first thing I look at is the artworks, a quick look and the second thing is, if the paintings or photos are under glass. If the answer is yes, I take a deep breath and start thinking of tricks I can use to avoid the glare and reflection.

Self Portrait 1979

This was the first drawing I saw and was under glass. So I took a deep breath and started to look for an angle that would allow me to take a half decent photo. It is the self portrait of the artist from 1979. A strange angle I may say, but in art, everything is possible and allowed.

Self Portrait

Another self portrait, this time a painting and from a few years earlier. I was a bit surprised to see two self portraits on next to the other, but having it gives you the opportunity to compare the two. We have a graphics and a painting here, which obviously are different, but even so, the face features has to be the same to some extent and I can assure you, they are.

Self Portrait 1950's

And another self portrait, from the early life of the artist. I can't deny it, it was a bit strange to see so many self portraits in one place, and who knows, maybe this is just a tiny portion of the total number of self portraits the artist has created.

And another self portrait, a very different one, smaller too, way smaller than the others. If I want to be honest, it's the smallest I've seen so far.

Self Portrait 1970

Surprise!! Another self portrait.

Self Portrait 1970's

And another one, a totally different style.

Now, after so many self portraits, you can see what's important to notice here. Each self portrait is different and I'm not talking solely about the age of the artist. You can see, we have drawing, painting, most likely linocut as well and the last one is a technique I know nothing about.

I'm not sure if it's normal to have so many self portraits, or not. I'm always imagining the artists trying to make their self portrait as lively as possible, but I also know how difficult it is to really finish the artwork in general. Tell me honestly, when can you consider your self portrait finished? When you see what you want? Or when you see yourself as you are, on canvas, paper or whatever medium you use? It's a difficult one, but huge congrats to Pál Nagy, for this collection. These portraits showed me something I've never thought about.

Frost - 1975

To break the streak string of self portraits, here's a painting, a very unusual one for several reasons.

I took a photo from the side, for you to see, the canvas is not flat. This shows how versatile the artist is. This is a simple, winter scene, but had a high impact on me.

Imagine, at the time of my visit, there was like 32°C outside. The gallery has air con, as when it comes to art, that's a must, but still, seeing this winter scene made me want to go somewhere, where I'm not melting from the heat. But jokes aside, I love the simplicity of the painting and the fact that the house is mad differently to break normality and monotony is a huge plus.

Fog - 1973

Speaking of simplicity, here's another wonderful painting, which I love due to it's simplicity. We don't know what tree this is, but I suppose it's a willow.

Dew - 1976

A somewhat similar painting as the previous one. I can imagine a scene like this in real life. Have seen a few but as fog and this kind of frost is pretty rare where I live, I can appreciate this painting more.

I took a close up photo of this painting to show you how it was done. It's pretty amazing as it's not like regular brush stokes on canvas. You can recognize the excessive paint that is wrinkled. I don't think I'm ever seen such a painting, or technique, to be honest.

This is it for today and I'm really curious to see what you think of this self portrait collection. Have you ever seen anything like this? Let me know in a comment please.

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