Nádas Péter
Minimo. In the Colours of Darkness
The Erika Deák Gallery is pleased to present the long-awaited exhibition of Péter Nádas, who is mainly known as the Kossuth-Award winner writer, even so started his career as a photographer. The opening speech will be held by József Mélyi, art historian on Thursday, 29 November at 6 pm.
It is of great pleasure to accommodate the photographic works of Péter Nádas in the form of a grand exhibition. Images of the display are in conversation with his recently published book ’Dreadful Stories’. A personal aspect is also the reason for a ceremonial tone – the author celebrates his 80th birthday this year and therefore our exhibition is part of a major series of event, organised in acknowledgment to Nádas, taking place all over the country.
The photographic oeuvre of Péter Nádas spans back to the mid 1950s – up until 1999 he was engaged with analogue photography; however, he ended this kind of practice when he published his book ‘Valamennyi fény’ [Some light]. This was such an abrupt break off that he even terminated his laboratory, and donated his photographs to public collections (including the Kunsthaus in Zug and the Petőfi Literary Museum in Budapest). Digital technique, especially the iPhone, has got into his artistic focus since 2003.
The synthesis between literature and photography is a continually appearing element in Nádas’ body of work. This series with its personal tone came alive along the paradigm shift in photography. The starting point was the elimination of analogue techniques and the preference of digital tools. His photographic series realised along the thematic of his writing ‘In the colours of darkness’ is engaged with the amplified risk of error in digital photography, more specifically the thematic duality of light and darkness in reflection to the appearance of smartphones.
‘Playing with natural human weaknesses has become all the moreimportant for me as I am currently writing horror stories, and themore horrible the story is, that is to say, the more it is nurtured by themagical and archaic layer of human consciousness, the more I needclarity and purity of vision to write it up.’
(Péter Nádas, In the colours of darkness)
Should you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact us via email.
Opening: 29 September 2022
Opening speech: József Mélyi, art historian
On view: 30 September – 11 November 2022
Opening hours: 12 – 6 pm, Wednesday – Friday