Reviews
Udner the Sign of Grafiterra
Besides these pieces which testify to a perfect appropriation of a refined culture of the form, specific to the Far East, another, apparently anthropomorphic cycle composed of interchangeable assemblages draws from the dynamism of the draperies of Hellenistic sculpture, interpreted in a personal key and adapted to ceramic art. Together with the preservation of the marks of the hand, A forging spirit becomes, in essence, the axis of Ernő Palkó’s creative endeavour, and thus the artist, returning to the origins of ceramics, discovers the foundations of a language of acute modernity.
In the alchemical process of making these vessels (let us call them so, conventionally), colour as well as the sinuous lines engraved within the paste, within the genuine magma, play an important role, not so much of being an accessory as an integral part of a visual spectacle which engages, among other senses, the tactile one as well. In this ordeal, Ernő Palkó not only gives us the joy of rediscovery but at the same time incites the spectator’s aesthetic empathy, as the ultimate essence of the finality of an artistic thought deserving of this name.
Gheorghe Vida