Pal B. Stock
Fences 1, 2022
beeswax, encaustic, oil on wooden panel
130 x 100 cm
51 1/8 x 39 3/8 in
51 1/8 x 39 3/8 in
"To be free is not to do whatever you want, but to know that you can want."
Jean-Paul Sartre
The selection of works brought together in the solo show "Breaking Ground. The Spirit of Freedom" by Pal B. Stock deals with the idea of freedom in today's world. Mainly created during 2021-2022, when freedom has become contentious, the works exude a force of vitality and optimism.
The artist, in his studio, creates, like a magician, series of works in coloured wax or painting on glass. This gives rise to three cycles that can be grouped into three creative chapters: Breaking Ground, Fences and Day of Ages.
The beginnings describe the moment when everything is born: the joy of creation, the shyness of desire, and the explosion of circular forms, which give a character of rhythmicity and tumult to the image. It is a series full of strength, courage and the desire to liberate the forms contained in everything; it is a representation of detachment that creates the sensation of violent freedom in which everything is possible.
Fences offer the perspective of personal or imposed boundaries. The rhythmicity of a clear linear pattern in which the colours are strictly ordered creates a sense of limitation, restriction, and impossibility. The feeling of self-contained freedom can only be achieved by abolishing internal boundaries. It is a freedom that stems from the desire to break all rules and constraints.
The Day of Ages is an extensive cycle that combines a series of glass paintings that refer to the sensations of freedom. The freedom of hot summer days, the warm and fragrant rain, the mystery of twilight and the peace of watching the sunset. The colours here are intense, exuding an inner brightness full of freshness and complete joy. The broad strokes, mixtures and interweavings of colour depict a living, organic, ever-changing world.
Pal B. Stock is an artist whose works exude hope, vivacity, joy. Suffering from a chronic disease of the corneas of his eyes, Pal's vision is limited, and his perception of the natural world is blurred as if under an iridescent film of water. The technique of encaustics - mass-coloured wax - and painting on glass allows him to recreate these iridescent structures that his eye perceives in reality.
Curator: Diana Dochia
