Much research has been done on how color affects the human mind, and this research has long been applied to the real world. For example, in retail stores, stores prefer red carpets to blue because they are thought to subconsciously remind people of the ocean and make them feel uncomfortable. Hungarian artist Ilona Keserü, whose retrospective exhibition “Flow” recently opened at the Muzeum Susch in Switzerland, has done a lot of independent research on color theory in her 70-year career, since she began studying at the University of Fine Art in Budapest in the 1950s before of development. his artistic voice and honing his practice. Decades later, to stand in front of one of his canvases is to marvel at his use of color: bright colors stand out from the wall and capture your imagination with their unbridled power and force.
The 1950s were a time marked first by Stalinization and then by a period of liberation after his death in 1953. During this time, Hungarians were not allowed to travel outside the Eastern Bloc. However, in 1959, Keserü was granted a limited passport and took his first trip abroad to Poland, where he saw abstract paintings in museums for the first time. He began to draw his own sketches when he returned. In 1962, Keserü was able to go to the West for one year. He spent all of Rome and had his first solo exhibition at the Galleria Bars. In 1964, the artist painted his first major work, Silvery Photo. However, despite his involvement in the studies of abstraction, it was the Hungarian folk art that gave Keserü the most important inspiration, because it pointed to a true path, regardless of ideological barriers, connected to the past and modernity and highlighting universal values. To look at Keserü’s work is to see folkloric motifs everywhere, although the motifs interpreted are undoubtedly from the latter part of the 20th Century.
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In 1967, Keserü began to notice precision manufacturing when he came across Baroque tombstones in the village of Balatonudvari. After that, the tombstone became a recurring theme in Keseru’s work—curator Monica Zsikla said that the tombstone reflects the artist’s anxiety about death, which stayed with him throughout his life as he conveyed that anxiety with Pop sentiment, with bright pink and orange tones dominating. sails. The artist’s interest in form continues in works that depict fluid lines, and it has been argued that Keserü’s obsession with these fluid forms is derived from his interest in the female body and second wave femininity. More than once, he showed abstractions of the female form in flowing lines and pink tones, early works of art created at a time when female desire was still a taboo. However, it is important to note here that feminist ideas connected to second-wave feminism and development in the United States and Western Europe were unknown in Hungary until the second half of the 1970s. Broadly, Keserü’s work has been compared to that of artists such as Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois and Judy Chicago. On the other hand, Keseru cites artists who have greatly influenced his opinion such as Maria Jarema, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana and Cy Twombly.
I had the opportunity to speak with Polish entrepreneur and art collector Grażyna Kulczyk, the founder of Muzeum Susch. “I came to Susch and wanted to develop the former monastery while respecting its 12th-century origins,” Kulzcyk told the Observer. “Since then, the aim has been to showcase artists who are overlooked and misread.” Only the interior of the former monastery has been changed. Outside, the museum and its surroundings can form a 16th-century painting, with mountains on either side and the river Inn flowing nearby.
It was in the 1970s that Keserü began his independent study of colors which has been his focus for decades. He explained what he first saw about the colors of the rainbow and the colors of the skin in this way: “All the colors of the rainbow agree with each shade of the skin of the people living on Earth.”
Keserü was one of the first artists of his generation to incorporate sewing into his work—not just as a craft but as a practical form of artistic expression. Creating textile aids, he invented a method of accentuating the canvas that would become his trademark. In this exhibition, one work is shown that highlights Keseru’s love of color and his sewing skills: the giant. Color-Space fabric structure that takes up most of the room’s space. Exciting, surreal, monumental art that invites you to walk around it, walk through it and feel a sense of awe.
The exhibition at Muzeum Susch is well worth seeing, and I recommend taking the train from Zurich across the Alps, offering beautiful Brueghel-esque mountain views throughout. Keserü turns 91 this year, and it is a blessing to see this complete and exciting return of his work with his latest paintings, as well as his early creations, displayed in an unparalleled setting. Take your time and think about the works—as the artist wrote in 1979, “Look at a painting with an uncertain, multifaceted, whole person participating in the unexpected and mysterious events of your life.”
“Ilona Keseru, Flow” runs at Muzeum Susch in Switzerland until October 26, 2025.
