Hungary and Albania
2019.07.15
I do like this picture. A very nice old Hungarian stamp series gave me the idea to commemorate the artists of the world of Cirque. It was not easy to find out how can I show this world. I remembered the feeling when we went into the cirque in my childhood, I looked at the stamps and the concept slowly appeared: visiting children came into the center as the show was made first of all for them. I went to the cirque not only as child but took my own children many times to this wonderful world as well. The clown, the skills of the acrobats and the exotic animals always seduced us. The artists on the picture enter the amphitheatre as different beams of light while the back is given by the sky with stars. This is my way of commemorating the wonderful world of the Cirque.
The afterlife of the picture however is not an everyday story at all. I painted it in Debrecen and it was first exhibited for the public. It was then taken to London and was on show at the 2019 Stampex, the largest British stamp exhibition and fair in the Islington Design Center. The next stop on this interesting journey was the Royal Residence in Tirana, where Crown Prince Leka Zogu 2nd, the grandson of the late King of Albania Ahmet Zogu lives together with his wife. It is very interestig for us Hungarians that the grandmother of the Prince was a Hungarian countess Geraldine Apponyi. Leka 2nd, the young Prince is the only living member of the Albanian Royal family and works as an advisor to the Government of his country. Thus it is a interesting and important occurance in my artistic life that this picture was taken to his private gallery. I have never dreamt about such a success so my joy is even greater. I can thus tell to everyone that miracles can really hapen. His Royal grandmother’s life is a very good example for the existence of miracles. Before becoming to be a Royal she worked as a guide in Hungary and when investigating into her life I found some sentences which are said that they belong to her: „I met the King and it was a case of love at first sight. It might sound to be strange, I know, but we really fell in love in some minutes and what started to be a managed marriage became to be a real love-match”.
