Tibor Csernus, one of the most significant Hungarian and European painters of the second half of the 20th century, lived and worked in Paris for over four decades. Some of the works on view are studies, preliminary sketches for large paintings, rather than parts of a series that would follow a definite artistic concept. The aquarelle and pastel studies of bushes and plants, as well as the nude sketches, offer an insight into the art of image construction, although the individual pieces can also be considered self-contained works of art. Nevertheless, the excitement of experimentation can be felt behind every stroke of the brush or the crayon, as the painter considers ever new details and figures in search of the presentation and form of expression best suited for the painting to be made.
Despite his experimental spirit, freshness and relaxed nature, Csernus’s mode of representation rests firmly on the ground of the view of nature. This is what he exposes to his own, subjective experience of nature, the result being his signature surnaturalism.
The studies and surrealist-surnaturalist works reveal Tibor Csernus’s method of abstracting and dismantling the world before building a new one from the chosen elements of the nature that surrounds him.
