Shy and reserved by nature, someone who prefers to communicate visually, not verbally – meet Ildikó Morovszki Halász, a Hungarian Artist who now works and lives in India. In order to display her expression through aquarelle and acrylic paintings, and showcase her visions about India, which are a composition of the life of simple
Indians, street celebrations, the beauty and surprises of the ’Incredible India’ – an exhibition of her work was held on April 5th at the Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel Gachibowli. Read on ahead to know her better…
By: Anahita Ahuja
It has been just four years that you have started painting. How did you get into painting?
In the last 4 years, I have been travelling a lot to different parts of India with my family. Each and every journey brought us new and different experiences, opened new and different segments of the Indian life, culture and spiritualism for us. India is an extremely important chapter of my artistic life. Should I have not come to India with my family in 2015, I might have never made a reach for a brush, but upon arrival to India, I immediately started to feel the same strong inspiration for a painting that my fellow Hungarian-born woman artist, Amrita Sher Gil must have felt, living here. One thing that Amrita Sher-Gil and I have in common is that we both are women artists, borne in Hungary. We both came to India at one point of time and discovered the beauty of India, and decided to express it through paintings. Eminently I was, and I am interested to paint faces, people, movements, moments, and situations that carry me away and mean India for me.
What made you select India as your muse? Was there anything particular about India that inspired you.
When travelling in different parts of India, one can discover totally new and different worlds and by that, get unique cultural impressions, characteristic only for that specific region. That makes India so colourful and interesting. One of my first trips in India with my family was to Rajasthan, where I was astonished to come across too many rugged features, colourful, and at the same time craggy faces. These colourful faces, full of dominant character, inspired me to start to paint portraits, so we can say the birthplace of my “Portraits” was in Rajasthan. When travelling, we usually (as well) stop at places, that are not visited by tourists. We communicate with the local people, we accept eventual invitations to their houses, and we let them show what they do for a living. When inspired by a certain situation, face, movement, extremity, etc. I usually take a lot of photos about these interactions that will later remind me about the situation, the atmosphere, etc.
E.g. interacting with the water carrier women, I requested them to load the buckets on my head, so that I myself feel how difficult their work was. On our vacation in Kerala, early morning I went to the seaside to see the fishermen, pulling the long nets for the first catch. I wanted to feel how difficult their work was, so they let me join them and let me pull the nets with them. (My husband was shocked to see me) I have just decided that my next series will be dedicated to the fishermen of Kerala.
What about Amrita Sher-Gill do you admire the most?
Looking onto Amrita as my Master, first, I made aquarelle studies on her most famous Indian oil paintings, with the goal to create a déjà vu feeling, expressing the original atmosphere of her paintings but with a different technique, so the first series were my studies on Amrita’s works. Later on, I started consciously look for themes of my own, but Amrita’s inspiration, enthusiasm and influence is always with me, therefore I have chosen to title the exhibition “In the wake of Amrita Sher-Gil”.
Which of your work do you consider as your favourite?
All my paintings “are my children”, so, I cannot select any single one as favourite, but, as I am not motivated to create something just for decoration, I would say, I like most those pictures that transcend/exceed the limits of a simple expression, delineation, reflection or decoration. The piece of art must have an underlying content, a “thought behind”, must comprise and express a message for the viewer. No doubt, in some cases, the content, the message can be the impression itself. E.g. a fascinating glance of an old woman. Unfortunately, it is not easy to “paint the message in” and it is even more difficult to “let the message come out”. Sometimes I do not succeed. In this case, I simply destroy the painting I do not like.
What keeps you inspired and motivated as an artist?
Permanent shortage of satisfaction in my endeavours for perfection.
What are your future plans?
I have two plans:
- To learn a lot more from my Masters, to further work on the development of my artistic and technical skills.
- To show “Incredible India”, the way I saw her, for the Hungarian people. As my husband is finishing his diplomatic service in Mumbai, unfortunately, I will have to return home with my family early June. After returning, I have a plan to organise several exhibitions and showcases based on the large material created in India about India. I hope, later on, I will have the possibility to show the material about India in other European countries as well.
Which artist’s work do you admire the most?
The list would be very long; therefore, I just give you some examples. Generally, I admire women artists. In India, first of all, Amrita Sher-Gil, who is my Master. I also admire the works of B. Prabha, who, herself was inspired by Amrita, at a time when India had few women artists. I very much respect the works of Frida Khalo, from Mexico. (Part of her ancestries came from Hungary.) There is a very talented young lady in Hungary, Ms Noemi Eordogh, whose works impress me very much. Talking about men, here is my “list”: the Indian Francis Souza, David Hockney from GB, Denis Sarazhin, from Ukraine and Gábor A. Nagy, from Hungary.
What, according to you, is the most difficult part of creating/completing a painting?
As I am a Graphic Designer by profession, the most difficult part for me in creating a painting is to forget about being a Graphic Designer. But, as I mentioned earlier, the greatest challenge is to “paint the message in” and to create a picture in a way that will “let the message come out” as well.
Is there something you want to put down on the canvas but haven’t yet?
Myself.
