József Bartl (1932-2013) is one of the most important figures of the Hungarian abstract art that was renewed in the 1960s and 1970s. His artistic identity was defined by two locations and the cultural milieu associated with them.
He was born in Soroksár, in a family of German nationality, and the Swabian culture remained an essential point of identification for him throughout his life. After he was given a studio in the Old Artists’ Centre in Szentendre in 1972, his artistic vision was radically transformed and within a few years his artistic form, which transposes archaic-figurative motifs into painterly symbols, was definitively established.
Inspired by the architectural and painting traditions of Szentendre, he was inspired by the deepening possibilities of interpretation of the local motif treasure trove, and found himself in an intellectual environment at the art camp that encouraged him to find his individual voice. From 1976 onwards, motifs endowed with multiple layers of meaning became the protagonists of his work, and this symbolic, ‘pictographic’ mode of expression became even more dominant in his ‘grid’ paintings from 1981 onwards.
Although a significant part of his career was marked by the confined world of the period, the question of political stance did not play a central role in his typical art, which is based on a few basic motifs (heart, tulip, cross, headboard, wave, puppet, wedge, circle). Rather, he focused on exploring his own inner world and seeking artistic expressions in which he found a home.
His oeuvre was rooted in the intellectual milieu that defined the vision of the generation of artists that began in the 1960s, especially Ilona Keserü, as well as Imre Bak, Pál Deim, István Nádler and other artists of the Zugló Circle.
In addition to the lessons learned from the art of the classical avant-garde masters (Braque, Klee, Matisse, Picasso), he was inspired by the progressive Hungarian aspirations of the 1930s and 1940s, and his work fits in the tradition of Dezső Korniss and Lajos Vajda, and more broadly the European School, which set the direction for the history of post-war art in Hungary.