Exhibition catalogue text by Dr. László Gazda
Égerházi thinks of himself, by his words, as someone who „does as his inner self guides him”.
He learned under József Menyhárt at the free art school of Debrecen, with his help his technique and perspective grew. He started off late, but some ancient, inherited talent erupted from him, giving him unique characteristics. Our Debrecen based painter was born in Hajdúság, but he is not only an admirer of his narrower homeland, but also of distant landscapes. The painter of houses and people of Hajdúság is at home in the landscapes of Gyimes and Gyergyó, in the surrounding silence of the mountains, and with his art he creates a home for us in it as well. He combines new features of Art Nouveau with features close to folk art. This is how the clear and precise wording fits in with the fabulous elements, the ballad atmosphere. As if to summon Lajos Áprily’s poem:
“To be amazed for as long as you can,
as long as your heart beats at a good pace,
preserve the dilating eye,
which you marveled at as a child. ”
So he is at home in the landscapes of distant countries and among its people.
The thematic richness of his painting, his special stylistic tools, the rich world of experiences are reflected back from his works through the always understandable simplification.
The decorativeness of the representation in the plane, in the two dimensions, the realization of the ability to emphasize the essence is proved by the fact that his precise lines, which fit into the appropriate structural order, divide it into large blocks and at the same time combine the spectacle. The stylized forms are arranged on this plane, in an accurate and disciplined compositional order. This artistic expression is also special and ancient, it moves and brings to life the depicted ones with the momentum of line drawing. The aspirations of folk art and its ancient features are combined into modern, topical and artistic paintings. In this way, in Imre Égerházi’s works, an inner relationship is created between nature and man, the strict reality of life forms and human emotions, between our past and present, the somewhat melancholic dream world and today’s life showing the meaning and results of struggle.
There is sincere faith and trust, joy and wonder in this artistic behaviour, which again begins to wrestle with the reality to be shaped, making the roar of the forests, the silence of winter, the human efforts for the better, for the better, perceptible by the artistic painting of our experiences.
Dr. Lászó Gazda
Principal of Museums of the County of Hajdú-Bihar