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Stefan Bertalan Politiker u. seine Frau, 1986
Red chalk and charcoal on paper (recto)
pencil on paper (verso)
30 x 40 cm (unframed)
48,6 x 59,1 x 4,2 cm (framed)
One can call it allegory. But it is not. Monsters arise from (once) functional biology. They act naturally. Like beasts. Like humans. Like politics.
—Erwin Kessler
The work, executed in red chalk and charcoal, depicts reptilian fantasy creatures. The work, whose red chalk is intentionally smudged in some places, refers to political conflicts.
Bertalan was monitored by the Communist regime throughout the 1980s, and could no longer keep together utopian views and concrete, widespread misgivings. He lost control. Nature as a system and science as a duty were shattered ideals in those times of chaotic regression, authoritarianism, suspicion, betrayal and repression. Bertalan’s rigorous networks were torn apart: their luminous, rational structure gradually melt away. His abstract grids turn shabby, ragged by doubts and fear. Plants, geological and cosmic structures reverse into distorted, menacing self-portraits, while the animals and bodies unveil their monstrous traits. The swirling rational universe altered into disarray.
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