Adolescence 1957

Etienne Hajdu’s ‘Adolescence’ is a marble sculpture and a truly unique piece. I find myself drawn to the way he teases out a figure from the stone, as if the form was already there, just waiting to be revealed. Look at the marble’s surface. It is polished and smooth, yet these dark veins run through it like cracks or maybe a roadmap. There’s this tension between the hard, cold stone and the soft, almost vulnerable curve of the figure’s body. The head is particularly interesting – fragmented and almost bird-like. I am reminded of the way Giacometti stretched and elongated his figures, capturing a sense of fragility and alienation. Hajdu plays with abstraction and representation, leaving space for us to project our own feelings and experiences onto the sculpture. I appreciate art that asks questions rather than giving answers.