András Gál’s radical painting work, quite uncommon in the Hungarian art scene, has entered a phase of self-reflection. For thirty years the artist has firmly and faithfully represented a programme rooted in twentieth-century abstraction, analytical painting and the shaped canvas, but essentially closest to the Materialbild tendency through the maximisation of the materiality of paint. Meanwhile, his method, which is confined to the core of painting, emphasises gesture, process and studio conditions, culminating in the all-over structure produced by the paint roller and spatula.
The exhibition Inventory is András Gál’s self-reflexive attempt to take stock of and organise his oeuvre, born in this system of thought. Each work represents a stage in the period between 1994 and 2024, from oil paintings, drawings and watercolours to acrylic panels. The recurring types of work are evidence of the continuity and cyclical nature of the painterly undertaking. The alternation of forms and surfaces ensures interchangeability between timelines, so that the “pinned” images; the grey monochromes; the drawings, etalon forms and photographs, highlighted from a booklet, attempt to set up a specific inventory or index of objects, beamed onto the work table in the middle of the space.