Zsolt Basti talks to Francis Halsall about his accomplished practice, in which abstraction is an act of empathy
Zsolt Basti’s paintings can sometimes feel like a play of contradictions. Yet across all of his highly accomplished practice, two things remain constant: a commitment to the medium of painting and a deep concern for humanity. Throughout his meticulous work a balance is struck between realism and abstraction, the particular and the general.
Consider, for example, Mokus (Fig 4). The subject matter is a figure seated on a chair positioned in a tight interior space against an indeterminate green wall and brown floor. Some details are precisely depicted, including a pearl earring hanging from the subject’s right ear and hands, lightly clasped, in her lap. On the hands the outlines of nails and knuckles have been clearly picked out and depicted. Contrast these details with the head. Here, despite the face being framed by hair neatly collected in a bun, the face is lost in an impressionistic form composed of whitish and abstract brushstrokes. The act of creating this form where a face should be is not one of violence, in which the humanity of the subject has been effaced and denied. Instead, abstraction is an act of compassion and empathy, in which the person remains present yet retains their privacy and their dignity.
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