Norbert Hegedűs

Budapest, 1983-

Norbert Hegedűs is one of those young painters who do not see the legacy of painting in the history of art as a matter of admired but – who cares about all that anymore – admired and admired, far away from us, sleeping in museums. The concept of his art, which does not make his task any easier, is clearly based on his knowledge of the great masters of figurative painting. The influence of many of the great masters of the centuries since portraiture became a genre in its own right is inescapably present in Norbert Hegedűs’ paintings. It is natural that the colours, brushstrokes and various traits of his predecessors, or indeed of his contemporaries, should be prominent, in other words, everything that is usually called the ‘painting problem’. “I am in constant dialogue with traditional painting”, says the artist, “in order to develop a visual world that is valid for the present.” The mood of the pictorial world, which best suits Norbert Hegedűs’ outlook on the world, his intellectual and emotional outlook, is somewhat melancholic. The activities of his lonely figures take place in an atmosphere of mystery, sometimes evoking situations from Seneca. The postures of his figures are in fact ordinary, yet seem unusual. It is precisely here that Norbert Hegedűs has the opportunity to use his images to make his viewers aware of a phenomenon and an event that has not yet been experienced. The title figure of his exhibition is a small human figure, which is commonly used by painters and can be posed in any way they like. By setting up his models, Norbert Hegedűs is able to refer to stories, characters, things that can be perceived but not expressed in words. Tünde Bodnár – Art historian