" For centuries, particularly in the 20th Century, Hungary's geographical location has added much to the characteristics and colourfulness of its culture and ceramic art.

The desire to identify with the ideological and artistic results of the West, which were always more rich economically, more cosmopolitan, more democratic, and by these means more individual, can be discovered in many of the works created in the studio. At the same time, however, there was also a desire to adopt the cultural values of the East, where marvelous folk art, myths, collective poverty and suffering bore ideas.

On the cultural highway between East and West, Hungary is a meeting and melting point, breeding unique cultural characteristics which could only be born on this ground. Here every work always revives ideas a bit distorted but every work always intends to carry a sort of message.

Besides the 'European' artistic endeavours of the civilised West, here we can discern the importance of the racial, national and religious ideologies with the endeavour to push each other out, whilst embodying Asian cultural characteristics in the works as well. We can also recognise the stored traditions in these creations, the effects of the slowly developing and changing cultures, while concurrently supporting unique traditional values in the local arts and the instinctive or conscious, but essential, existence of drawing upon personal feelings of life and the affiliation or desire for it.

In this territory was born, under the time of communism, which was ideologically nice but in practice despotic, hidden behind high walls, but mentally free within them and still surviving the historical changes and economic earthquakes, our workshop, the International Ceramic Studio, or as the artists coming here from all over the world to work here call it, the meeting point, the island, the cloister of ceramic art.

Ceramic art is the art of the primeval elements. It is made from the earth with water and by fire. As we know, due to its particular resistance to decay, archeological research has been able to track ceramic art as perhaps the most ancient form of humanity. Ceramics could be created in a simple way for thousands of years from the body of our ancestress, Gaia, from the ground which is in danger now for her natural existence. Ceramics - thanks God - can be used only for human purposes because of its singular fragility and difficult handling.

Clay is a wonderful gift for humanity as it can be found almost all over the world in nature, though with different qualities, and used as a material for artistic purposes. Perhaps this wonderful feature is the reason that so many cultures and dreams of individuals can be formulated in the basic material of ceramic art.

The interesting attribute of ceramic art is that it carries the features of sculpture and painting thus it is difficult at times to decide if the creator is a ceramist or a sculptor or a painter. That is why it is so fascinating that regarding the method of using the material the artist can be any of them. Regarding the quality, the artist can be a craftsman or an artist or both at the same time.

Most of the time it is a big dilemma for those appreciative analysts or critics of the ceramic art that ceramic pieces can hardly be measured against each other or to works of other art forms. In the U.S. I've encountered a remarkable comparative system used by Wayne Higby, an excellent, well known American colleague, which endeavours to make categories based on the ceramic items' place of use or function, for example: 'objects of the kitchen', 'objects of the room' etc. It is an interesting approach. Correct or not - it is a question of the acceptance of the concept. For me neither comparison nor analysis is important. Every work created by a fine artist or craftsman, valuable or valueless, can only be compared to itself.

Art or not art - it is that simple, I think. Within this the points of view of judgement and qualifying must be based on the aesthetic values, the unique technique and the recognisable messages which are in the work. It can be good or bad, nice or ugly, it could be done by a talent or a dilettante, the value of it is decided by the receiver. This is how it has to be!

Aggressive historical powers and potentates have stamped out works of art, only the remnants are accessible to later generations. Why do I mention this? Because we created the studio following these thoughts and because we believed that the purpose of real art is the catharsis for the ones who see these works. To find the secret to the order of the world, to understand the meaning of life - these are the desires of the thinking man and that is what artists denote in their work, even if only subconsciously, and that which other people individually recognise as catharsis.

Artistic works can be judged or condemned, they can be prohibited, endured or supported by political powers. They can be influenced by the interest in making them fuller and practical for human use, however this doesn't change personal judgement to the effect that beauty is what I find beautiful and precious is what I find cathartic. This is the substance and why any work can have value for someone and why there is no sense in passing judgement. Not so important are the interpretations but rather the path of realisation. It is unimportant which group you belong to - that does not give value to the work. I feel sorry for those who live together with strange, unenjoyable works of art only because others have deemed them to be valuable.

What delights me in peaceful, colourful artistic works is seeing that in my homeland, in the Carpathian Basin, alongside the Hungarians there are Turkish, Tartar, Romanian, Germanic, Slavic, Jewish and who knows how many cultures have left their traces hidden in the strata of time that can be recognised by sensitive, objective eyes.

And another thing. This cloister of art has an unwritten rule - the creative thoughts and the results of everyone's experiences are given to each other. There are no technical secrets, only private, creative thoughts, but thoughts which shine out from the works - and then for everyone. Perhaps it won't sound too idealistic that I believe it to be undisputable and uniquely valuable that among the the works made in the Studio, and now in our collection, are a result of this mutual effect.

Central Europe, and Hungary in it - though not clay - is a magic vessel, hiding the wonderful mixture of cultures. This territory is characterised by deadly hostilities, cultural dominances, violence of power and, though not deadly, the smashing presence of it in the art - and still here a hundred strange flowers are blooming. Here works are created from suffering, from pleasure and humiliation which are differing in their impulse and purposes from the works of nations accustomed to the freedom of self expression. And it is this value of them, the unique feature of them is what they add to the culture of the world.

Let the wheel go on . . ."

János Probstner,
Balázspuszta, Csonka Tanya,
23rd June, 1997

drawings of the International Ceramics Studio by János Probstner