A Szépség-mítosztól az úttörő nyakkendőig : Gyermekábrázolás az utóbbi 30 év magyar művészetében = From Beauty Myth to Pioneer Tie. Representation of Children in Hungarian Art in the Last 30 Years

Tatai, Erzsébet (2019) A Szépség-mítosztól az úttörő nyakkendőig : Gyermekábrázolás az utóbbi 30 év magyar művészetében = From Beauty Myth to Pioneer Tie. Representation of Children in Hungarian Art in the Last 30 Years. In: Gyerek/kor/kép – Gyermek a magyar képzőművészetben = Picturing Childhood – The Child in Hungarian Art – Past and Present, 2017. február 17-18., Budapesti Történeti Múzeum Vármúzeuma.

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Abstract

Ever since psychology discovered the importance of childhood as the foundation of personality, this idea entered and infused all segments of our culture to the same extent as our knowledge of it deepened, differentiated and got refi ned during the past hundred years or so. Even some TV series like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or Desperate Housewives often suggest childhood traumas, abuse and frustrations behind a murderer’s motives; and although spectators never forgive the criminals, they might understand 344 the cause and the reason of their atrocities. Different schools of reform-pedagogy having emerged a hundred years ago also generated modern inquiry about childhood with their philosophies about the child and childhood; while appreciation of individual children might have increased because of the pedophile scandals popping out one after the other as well as the decrease in birth numbers – at least in Europe. This interest is manifested primarily by books and fi lms on children, their destiny, but also by the almost infi nite number of child photos taken by family members or professionals, Modern views about children’s fate and their problems appear in fi ne arts strongly fi ltered. Maybe the genre requires a more meditative attitude from the viewer. There are only a few artists who explore problems with such harsh directness as Tracey Moffat, Balthus or Fiona Tan. However, a number of contemporary Hungarian artists undertake the representation of children wording questions or statements about child life and childhood with very different motivations and aims. In other cases, displaying children relays of or stands for something else. Both the themes in which children may be represented (almost every theme within the exhibition “Child in Hungarian Fine Arts” in the Budapest History Museum includes contemporary works) as well as the methods of their representation are quite diversifi ed. Child representations by Ágnes Szépfalvi (Agnes von Uray) and Kinga Hajdú are almost traditional – in aesthetic sense – while in the paintings of Mária Chilf, Lola Kovács and Zsuzsa Mojzer on children there is a kind of enigmatic, fearful or symbolic power that helps us get over our customary notions about children. Péter Hecker deliberately destroys our sentimental attitude to state something about us (even our childish self) through a child representation. One of the most exciting questions is how does the recollection about the artist’s childhood appear; what kind of meanings are generated by the paintings of Luca Gőbölyös, Balázs Beöthy, Veronika Jakatics Szabó and Attila Szűcs; how do psychological affects get associated with the historic era of the artists’ childhood – no matter w hether the recalled memory is fi ctitious or real. It is irrelevant to what extent is this trace of memory embedded in the concrete personal reality of past experience, it is more important what kind of past is (re)constructed by the artist in the present of the work of art.

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