294 Városi believes that the viewer loves to discover, to search for secret, hidden details. That is why he hides small figurative elements: by finding these the viewer can experience the image in an entirely new way. Could it be perhaps a 21st-century re-thinking of the secret messages and meanings – only decipherable to the initiated – hidden in Jan van Eyck’s paintings? Gábor Városi has a thousand ties to the past, yet he takes his audience by the hand and guides them towards the future. Sometimes he even shares the “canvas” with others. “We made this together with Laci Erdész” – Gábor points to one of the pictures. The well-known gallery owner from Szentendre is of course a good artist himself. Because sometimes Városi even hands a brush to spectators and they paint together. As soon as a partner from a non-artistic field physically becomes part of the creative process, this person is guaranteed to enter into a new relationship with a world only seen from the outside. In this case, the artist, together with a partner of his choice, wrestles with the act of creation. This is no longer painting in the traditional sense, but a ritual joint action, in which the “sacrifice of creation” is presented by several people in the sanctuary of the resulting shared painting. Fifty 2021 / private collection of Tamás Illés / 150 x 240 cm mixed media on plexiglass
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