László Fekete
(this biography from Garth Clark Gallery web page)B. Budapest, 1949. Fekete studied at the Budapest Academy of Applied Arts from 1969 to 1974. As was the tradition amongst artists during the communist era Fekete focused mainly on international juried exhibitions winning a slew of medals, prizes and diplomas for his work from the Hungarian Cultural Ministry, the French Cultural Ministry, the Mino Triennial and the Academy of International Ceramics. Since 1994 he has exhibited with the Garth Clark Gallery, New York. Fekete's work takes on a grand theme, the layered cultural detritus over five hundred years of successive regimes in Hungary, each of which as attempted to wipe out the traces of the previous power. In some of his work he collaborates with the Herend Porcelain factory, using their seconds to assemble sardonic commentaries on taste and culture. His work is in the collection of the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC; the Budapest Museum of Decorative Art, Budapest and the Mino Triennial, Mino, Japan. See: Garth Clark and Laszlo Fetete, Laszlo Fekete (New York: Garth Clark Gallery, 1997) Garth Clark, Mary F. Douglas, Carol E. Mayer, Barbara Perry, Todd D. Smith and E. Michael Whittington, Selections from Allan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection. (Charlotte, NC: Mint Museum of Craft and Design, 2000) and Garth Clark, The Artful Teapot (London: Thames and Hudson, 2001)(http://www.neue-keramik.de/english/magazine/fekete-e.htm 4-30-08) My work is heavily influenced by the fact that the focus of my life is in central eastern Europe. In this region, we live permanently in the process of a "forced cultural globalisation" that is not always entirely voluntary. Repeated attempts to imprison us and occupy our territory by the Mongols, the Ottomans, Habsburgs, Germans and the Soviet Union, and further back, by Romanians, Huns and various Slavic and other empires. We Hungarians also combine a mixture of various nations in our national identity: Croatians, Germans, Serbs, Slovaks, Romanians, Jews, gypsies and even Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians and so on. In the past fifteen years – after our liberation from the Soviet Union – we have been subjected to the influence of American civilisation and culture. Much more rapidly and more aggressively than we were acquainted with after the war in Western Europe. After forty years of wild experiments, what was known as communism, we were virtually helpless against these influences, and nothing has changed even today.In particular it was the twentieth century that came as a shock to us Hungarians: nine profound and sudden changes of the political system have left deep scars: in our nervous system, our growing pessimism, our society and culture… everywhere, everywhere…I myself am also composed of various influences, Hungarian, Jewish, German, Croatian, who knows what… what other ancestors? From this viewpoint, the traces of my history and environment become visible in my work. But I have to admit that I very much enjoy being subjected to these many diverse and turbulent influences – they suit my nature. It is no wonder that I use a blood-like red in many pieces, sometimes on its own, sometimes in combination with a decor that is appropriate to bourgeois taste.Sometimes I add decor, beer, Coke and the goods of modern life. An incredible mixture…definitely unacceptable for many people who come from "pure" cultures such as the Scandinavians, the Japanese and others.It was only a few years ago that I started to make large-scale pieces, which stand out from the others. They were created under the influence of a culture from the other side of the world: the islands of the South Pacific. Yes, I have always liked these large, monumental heads, even during my childhood. Perhaps because they form a perfect contrast to my surroundings in Budapest. I admired them then and I still do: the way they are calmly seated on hillsides, and stare into the endless blue of the ocean and the sky…not excited, not fighting, they do not even argue with each other… just sitting calmly and looking peacefully.(http://www.ceramicstoday.com/articles/hungarian_connection.htm 4-30-08)
Fekete (b. 1949). Hungarian studio potter. Fekete studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest under Imre Schrammel, graduating in 1974. He makes intricate stoneware and porcelain sculpture with social commentary at its heart, sometimes decorating the works with readymade industrial decals. He also creates works by assembling seconds from the Herend Porcelain Manufactory.
