"Nem esem kétségbe, ha az a konklúzió körvonalazódik munkám kapcsán, hogy az utóbbi években 'fekete-fehér festővé' váltam. Nincs baj a lemondásokkal. Ahogy mennek az évek, egyre inkább hiszem, hogy az a kevés, ami megmarad, jobban segít megtartani és megérteni az élet dolgait, legalábbis ezt remélem."
Tölg-Molnár Zoltán

"...Tölg-Molnár 'intim naplójából' kiválasztott plasztikái: megérett, tartalmas jelek, jelzések meztelenek csendesek... "
Zempléni Ádám

TÖLG-MOLNÁR ZOLTÁN
H-1142 Budapest, Erzsébet királyné útja 99. Tel.: (36-1)221 7769
1944- ben született Budapesten
1964- 70 Képzőművészeti Főiskola,
festő szak
1971- 74 Derkovits-ösztöndíj
1987- től a Magyar Képzőművészeti Főiskola docense
1990 Munkácsy-díj

Frames and borders
More than ninety years ago Kandinsky defined the two poles of modern art as being great realism and great abstraction. This story, it seems, has not ended yet. It’s impossible to fail to recognize Zoltán Tölg-Molnár’s propensity for the latter. The reduction of forms creates abstract gestures and signs. The more abstract these gestures and signs are, the more they are charged with emotional and intellectual reality; and at a certain stage of this, in the history of culture as well as in the so-called development of Tölg-Molnár, there is the alphabet filled with meaning.
On the other hand, the fundamental reduction nearly casts the abstract form out of the picture’s surface. One might say that here these outcasts, projections, cutouts can be seen on the walls. This, however, has several consequences: the first and most striking one is the change of dimension: the forms become stereoscopic; the formal elements of the picture become reliefs or sculptures. The second is that the form materializes, the abstract form is simultaneously realistic material. The third consequence—which could almost be a typical instance of the immense proximity of Kandinski’s two extreme poles, dialectically speaking—is great abstraction’s tendency to shift to great realism, the circumstance that the works here exhibited very closely approach objets trouvés, occasionally even in one of their significant structural elements, their frame.
When I visited Zoltán Tölg-Molnár in his studio, he gave his otherwise untitled works names, for domestic use, such as curtain-rod, hoop, letter ‘V’ or tuning-fork, etc. With these he referred to structure on one occasion, and to similarity on another. However, artistic manipulation does not only reveal but also conceal this objet trouvé character, for the fourth time over, in a peculiar way, in order to represent or suggest another found quality, the natural formation of these objects, the free play of the black cart-grease as it flows around the abstract form and solidifies at will. Fifthly, on the edges of the objects, the indented pattern, the silhouette-quality counteracting the heavy, big hulking impact, one might even say ‘steals’ the painterly details back in skyline form. Finally (sixthly)—but this can probably only be revealed for those who have the opportunity to touch and lift these objects—the heaviness is actually very light, for the technical material of the relief is the smashed, crushed, kneaded and requalified material of the picture, the paper. The artist has not only cut the form out of the picture but also crushed the picture’s material. With two aggressive gestures, this and the black, he has created the illusion of heaviness from lightness.
Being cut out of two dimensions means that the forms lose their substance or background present on the pictures. Or are we to regard the white wall the background? It seems to me, rather, that the extreme simplification of the forms depicts as vacuum what the wall frames or borders. Because here we see frames and, with one exception, fragments of frames. The circle is a TONDO’s frame, and even the curtain-rod’s monumental span can be regarded as a section of a circle. The ‘tuning-fork or letter V’ encricling itsef. One of the line-objects still guards its picture-frame character with its rectangular bend, the other two, mutually bending into one other seem to point toward the individualization of boundaries.
The frame on the tableau serves as the demarcation between the picture-world and our world. It makes us step in and step out. Now, at the actual stage of a radical and consistent route, these boundaries become doubtful in the form of strong gestures. 

Sándor Radnóti

Radnóti Sándor
Translation: Helga László

Csoportos kiállítások / válogatás/

• 1978 Festészet '78. Műcsarnok, Budapest
• Jubileumi Stúdió Kiállítás. Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest
• Stúdió Kiállítás. Grand Palais Párizs
• Stúdió Kiállítás. Arras
• 1979 INTERVERSA. Hamburg
• Stúdió Kiállítás. Atatürk Kult. Centrum, Isztambul
• 1980 Magyar Kulturális Hét. Duisburg
• Stúdió Kiállítás. Pécs
• 1982 Tavaszi Tárlat. Salgótarján
• 1983 Festészeti Biennálé. Szeged
• Magyar Képzőművészeti Kiállítás. Gauting-München
• Csontváry Terem, Budapest
• 1984 Stúdió Kiállítás. Műcsarnok, Budapest
• Faubourg Galerie, Neuchâ tel
• Pierre Cardin Galéria, Párizs
• INTERART, Poznan
• Festészeti Biennálé, Szeged
• Hungart-Import, München
• 1985 Atelier Mensch, Hamburg
• Atrium Hyatt, Budapest

• 1986 Magyar Képzőművészeti Kiállítás. Bayer Kult. Centrum, Leverkusen
• 1987 Art 18 ''87'' Basel
• Malten Galerie, Dortmund
• Magyar Képzőművészeti Kiállítás. Stadthalle, Hagen
• Kunst Mittelschule, Gent
• 1988 Galerie Eremitage, West-Berlin
• Art 19 ''88'', Basel,
• 1989 Art 20 ''89'', Basel
• Galerie Melnyikow, Heidelberg
• Strand Galerie, Södertalje
• 1991 Budapest Art Expo. Budapest
• 1992 Budapest Art Expo. Budapest 1993 Kortás Gyűjtemény. Cifra Palota, Kecskemét
• 1994 Budapest Art Expo. Budapest
• 1995 Budapest Art Expo. Budapest
• Budapest Galéria, Budapest
• Ispota, Győr
• Római Magyar Akadémia, Róma
• 1996 Budapest Art Expo. Budapest
• Gulácsy Galéria, Budapest
• Körmendi Galéria, Budapest
• 1997 Olaj, vászon. Műcsarnok, Budapest