Opening text by István Sinkó for the exhibition Bright side -delivered on 8 March 2023

I count only the hours of serenity

-wrote Lőrinc Szabó in his poem While Listening to Mozart. This was originally (Horas non numero nisi serenas ) was originally a Latin phrase for sundials. the beauty of passing time - sunny weather, spiritual happiness.

Erika Balla also paints the hours of serenity on her canvases. An optimistic, good-humoured, nature-loving sensitive to the beauty of nature and the bustle of life. This painterly line is today best represented by women artists. They show the carpe diem, the "Live for today" - a little hedonistic, perhaps, but certainly full of love of life of life. Sára Osgyányi, Réka Schnedarek and others of Balla's generation became painters of nature, landscape and everyday human life. Their colours vivid, their painting - like Balla's - evokes the impressionist era of the of life.

Erika Balla's early period was still characterised by lyrical-organic abstract expression represented. Glowing spheres of colour, pointillist formations showed that the young painter was searching for her own way, her own painterly language. They are in Pécs, and in Munich, however, were also a foretaste of the the intellectual, sensual attitude and the serene world view that had been the hallmark of the landscape and life of recent years. In addition to the early works, the exhibition includes two themes the summer beach experience, the beach, boats, bathers, and the and another, perhaps more strongly related to the first period, the emergence of the almost abstract scenes of water surfaces, waterfront scenes, underwater life, and the organic representation. With reference to these latter works, we can quote Émile Bernard's description of Cézanne's paintings: 'When colour is in its fullness, the form is at its fullest. "In these paintings of Balla, the rippling surfaces of water, sometimes mimicry melting into the waves, sometimes bright red the form may be less dominant, but the colours are soft and the softness and intensity of the shifts, the brilliance of the dominant blue-greens, with Bernard's quote is in keeping with the Bernard quote.

The almost abstract-decorative treatment of water surfaces by David Hockney pool paintings. Balla strikes a good balance between transcription and still-reality and yet.

The other half of the art groups are about life, holidays, people wandering in nature the joyful, carefree experiences of life. Resting and bathing in bays by the sea groups of bathers, figures standing in the water, divers, swimmers. All this is sometimes more powerful from a stronger perspective, from above, thus condensing the scene. The figures here are mostly contoured, drawn, in both colour and line. The depictive method of the eminent contemporary painter Leonardo Cremonini can also be found in this Cremonini's work, a structuralism, a unified use of painterly and graphic language, which also makes these group paintings a little alienating and generic. The foregrounding of many small figures, rocks, steps, parasols, canvases, in the field of vision gives a constant vibrancy and movement to the the depiction. Balla sketches the situations loosely, with one or two brushstrokes with a few brushstrokes, moving her figures with contours. The viewer is drawn into an aura of general joy when seeing these images, out of the drabness of everyday life, away from the so-called the so-called "Alltagsprozess", the habits of everyday practice. At the same time, Erika Balla's intention is palpable, her painting opens up to the world, but analytical, not merely impressionistic experiential painting. Perhaps she takes Cézanne's advice, which is for all painters - and for the viewer: "In the painter, two things are at work: the eye and the brain; and these two must both must serve each other. Both must be worked on and both must serve the eye and the mind. the eye with the image of nature, and the brain with the logic of the organised senses, which creates the means of expression. "

Erika Balla's paintings show this ambition, sensitive, sensual and intellectual, visually rich and professionally authentic. Visit with pleasure and with joy and serenity.