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What do we learn about art as such once we leave the realm of representation? What meanings does abstraction bring and what does it communicate? What is the relationship between the geometric and organic principles of design and what is the place of abstraction in the context of the relationship between fine and applied arts? The celebration of the 145th anniversary of the Museum of Arts and Crafts (MUO) is a convenient moment to re-examine some fundamental questions about the nature of art, its movement, purpose, and role in the lives of individuals and communities.

Questions like these invite us to go back to the basics of thinking about images and visuality and encourage us to re-examine canonical works, to which our eyes have become so accustomed, through contemporary understandings of visual art. The works we present at the In the Everlasting Flux exhibition belong precisely to this circle – they are a selection of the best achievements of modern and contemporary art from the MUO collections, both fine and applied, which, in conjuction with the Croatian Statehood Day celebration organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Hungary, can now be viewed in HAB.

Objects gathered from the collections of painting, sculpture, graphics, recent photography, graphic design and metal as well as glass, textiles and ceramics, created from the second half of the 20th century to the first decades of the 21st century, offer one possible reading of the development of certain trends in modern and contemporary art in Croatia. What connects them is the poetics of geometric and organic abstraction, which pose the eternal and inexhaustible question about the nature of structure in a work of art. The presented works provide a cross-section of the creative poetics of predominantly Croatian artists and designers such as Ivan Picelj, Aleksandar Srnec, Juraj Dobrović, Miroslav Šutej and Milan Vulpe, while deviations from the national key selection vividly testify to the rich cultural connections and exchanges with other artistic centers within the European and global context. Reflecting the aesthetic changes of its time and the cyclical changes of the thought and sensory principle, In the Everlasting Flux confronts us with the only consistency – that of eternal flow and constant change.

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The HAB spring sculpture park exhibition creates a dialogue between two artists who approach the question of the relationship between nature and man through timeless and ancient motifs. Whether it is about the patterns of nature or prehistoric architecture, deep, common layers emerge in the sculptures of Péter Gálhidy and Fábián Baráth. In both of their works, the impact of man on nature and his own world plays an important role, but while Péter Gálhidy approaches this process from the motif of plants, Fábián Baráth views this process from the motifs of the built environment.

The works on display at the exhibition, entitled Human Effect, substantiate the ecological approach in Péter Gálhidy’s oeuvre, present from the beginning, but becoming increasingly prominent in his work. As he puts it, confronting the magnitude of the polycrisis has also triggered stronger, more clear-cut expressions from him. Meanwhile, Fábián Baráth’s sculptures approach the relationship between nature and human intervention from a different angle. His thinking is greatly influenced by the relics of prehistoric architecture and ancient stelae, and in his sculptures he evokes the radiant power that appears in them.

Despite the apparent differences in expression between the two artists, close similarities in their outlook on life are also hinted at by the joint appearance of their works, as both pay strong homage to prehistoric forces.