András BRAUN
In the categorization-defeating painture of András Braun (1967-2015) the formal solutions of op-art and certain techniques of pop-art – such as advertisement-picking and the multiplication of the motives of consumer society – meet with an intense urge to decorate with an almost organic form creation-technique, and this meeting results in unsurpassable square-shaped, mostly large-size paintings. These paintings are based on the multiplication of one main motive, however the technique applied is never uniform. Braun uses wallpaper paste, acrylic paint, oil, as well as premade molds, creating stirring, wild, intensive and profane mandalas that hypnotically attract the eye. Braun passed away unexpectedly in 2015.
We can discover several recurring visual elements among András Braun’s motifs; concentric or interpenetrating circular shapes, spheres, and shapes reminiscent of the retina of the eye or cells are common. These are mostly connected in a dynamic, organic composition that creates a sense of movement. The motifs circling around the center or several centers and developing from them are usually regular forms born as a result of human design, but they are arranged and developed not according to the rules of constructive image editing, but mostly following the regularity of natural processes (fractals). Forms created by the human mind begin to behave like natural forms; the work of art, the designed form, as if taking over the regularities of the organic forms of nature, would develop by itself, flourish and multiply. Just as the visual image dumping that surrounds us also takes on an almost independent life in a continuous (almost organic) evolution and system of effects, so a form system composed by Braun begins to live its own life. We feel the presence and proportions of the microcosm (cells, petals, bacteria) and the macrocosm (planets, galaxies, solar systems) at the same time.
