FORAY INTO ABSTRACT
artist: Istvan BETUKER

The 'Foray into abstract' series shows snapshots of a trip, both literally and metaphorically. The trip explores the territory of the abstract, disputes its provocation, absorbs the possibilities offered by the reductionist tendencies.
This process has an important role in reducing and simplifying the technical solutions to their essence having its prints also in figurative painting. After deconstructions made by formalist approaches, the self-referential feature comes to the front.
The surface and the structure, as points of interest, have priority over the subject: forms and details take shape partly due to the will of the artist, partly due to the hazard. The pictorial elements are organized to create the rhythm of the surface, while the imagery taken from the environment becomes a pretext to obtain valid cadences.
Pictorial gesture can define a subject, while its content will be— inevitably and unconsciously — a result of the visual influences of the environment and the moment.