Review
The Magic of Forms
Already at the beginning of the last century, the art oriented towards transcendence, the metaphysical and the realms of pure reason had created its own new world, built on signs and symbols. The artistic expression rooted in the abstract captivates artists even today, although the intensity of the attraction is no longer as steadfast. Ceramics is no exception, being the branch of plastic arts that has experienced the greatest evolution in the last decades, overcoming the barriers of functionality and consciously accepting its change of function, proclaiming the victory of the autonomous work of art, of the self-standing creation that transcends the role of the decorative piece.
However, Ernő Palkó’s ceramics, which abound in specific signs and symbols, cannot be unequivocally categorized as abstract, for they exceed its boundaries and leave room for figurative purposes as well. I might call it a “shy” figurativeness, which implies variations in shapes resulting from a carefully thought-out generalization that focuses on the essential milestones.
In terms of sources, his works are biomorphic, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, marine formations, reminiscences inspired by the patterns of seashells or the relics of ancient vessels, inventions of one’s fancy and creative mood. Expanding the circle to the limits of sculpture, we notice that the artist is also familiar with the portraits depicting concrete features, be they grotesque, carnivalesque transfigurations, or transcendental angelic messages.
Earth colours, turquoise lights, glitters, whitish surfaces, spots of reddish glimmerings, reliefs and grooves enamelled with bluish hues, and shapes conceived from the parallelism of inevitable undulating lines give a concrete form to the world in motion, to the dynamism dominating the universe, to this endless rustling. At the same time however, they make palpable the creative appetite, full of ecstatic tension, flowing from the artist, or – in the more grotesque works – even from the assured openness towards self-banter. We can sense the deepening, triumph and inspiration of pure reason, but also the pleasure of the game, of a game taken seriously – just as we can feel the whole emotional foundation without which true art would be unimaginable.
In Ernő Palkó’s autonomous, postmodern figures with abstract and semi-figurative tendencies there appears to be a portrayal of an animistic conception, arising from prehistoric times. The artist enlivens the amorphous matter by giving a body to the things conceived in his subconscious, so as to make his ideas, desires, emotions, uncertainties and beliefs visible and palpable, and then, as an unflinching worshipper of fire, to become a lifelong ally of the maximum incandescence and wait with insatiable excitement for the capricious manoeuvres of the supreme master, fire: the transformation of flexible forms into solid bodies. To wait, as well, for the surprise occasioned by his work tempered in the fire, emerging from the burning furnace or, in the case of the raku technique, from the pile of earth. And this metamorphosis, the process of formation and transformation, seems to evoke the moments of genesis itself, giving shape to the artistic possibilities of eternal matter, of clay – opportunities arising from the present and extending, at the same time, into the atemporal.
Júlia Németh