Nonobjective Objects. András Böröcz's Art, Kunsthalle, Budapest, 30 November 2018-20 January 2019

The generation to come out of Hungary’s art schools in the 1980s gave voice to their changing society. Communism was on the wane, and with it both cultural repression and socialist art experiments.

In the sculptures of András Böröcz, these ambivalent changes lead to reflections on life itself: we’re fluid, capable of pretty much anything good or bad, and our circumstances can change overnight. Like his contemporaries, Böröcz is said to understand the “grotesque”: what part could that play in a transforming society?

You’ll see the influence on Böröcz of Hungary’s underground art scenes: Indigo, Fafej. But with the exhibition also featuring work he made in the United States after 1985, what effects can you see this added Western distance having on an artist?

Böröcz is a fan of the spindly style. His figures are elongated and strange, their faces warped but blank. You’ll see his skill with all kinds of materials, including stone, glass and wood. For Böröcz, everything from people to penguins, pencils to toilet plungers are fair game to turn into art.

This thoroughly modern display will help you to discover the relationship between society and art, politics and creative technique. It’s a rare show of continuity between the “old” Hungary of the Cold War and the “new” Hungary of today, centred on a single creative figure.

Jonny Elling