Private Storage

Introduction

To tell the truth is easy and pleasant, writes Bulgakov.
All Cretans are liars, said a Cretan.
Within this framework, a few words about the Gyárfás Collection, which legally is no longer mine.
It has become the property of my children, thanks in part to the favourable stipulations of gift taxes.
Its wit or witlessness, its character or lack thereof denote its creator.
The collection has grown for 40 years: transforming, shrinking, growing.
In waves.
Dependent on mood and money.
The initial desire for technical perfection (as the great purpose of art) was replaced by an attraction to the emptiness of the picture.
The significance of beauty by the significance of slightly irrational not-ugly.
The dense and no longer realist depiction of reality by the forms of modernity stripped to their bones.
The purchase of works by Hungarian artists by works by international artists.
Obtaining works from a studio by purchasing works at auction.
Collecting, of course, is a crutch.
An act with which one compensates for an absence, a series of acts serving to hide the recognized non-existence (lack?) of certain abilities (creative talent).
Self-reassurance, self-delusion, a search for relevance.
The expropriation of the work of others.
The collector exploits.
Love and hate are therefore his goal and gathering point.
Collecting is: work.
Searching, focus, tension, timing.
It has no laws.
Its fundamental principle is that it cannot be brought to a close.
At most, it can be suspended.
It is similar to gambling addiction.
It is a night and day activity.
Excitement, joy and disappointment.
Simultaneously, together and separately.
Even in the most beautiful moments, it makes one who suffers from eternal deficiencies and inadequacies miserable.
The more one has, the greater one’s sense of lack.
The more one wants.
The collector lives in a vicious circle.
There is always new or old, there is always the available and that which is not on offer – which is even more exciting.
The most exciting is what seems unattainable.
What you need to wait for in order to have access to it.
One must know how to wait.
Patiently.
One must give time for things and for their vendors.
The fruit will ripen.
In the end, the entire collection comes tumbling down on its owner.
The financial benefits are enjoyed by others.
It will cease, it will be scattered.
It will collapse and secede.
It exists in documents.
Careful hands place it in the category of the beautifully packageable.
The remains are collected by new collectors.
It becomes a memory.
That’s why and how the collection expands in time.
It leaves a trace.
Do we need more?

Péter Gyárfás