Palmyre 1968

Curator: Standing before us is Étienne Hajdu’s 1968 sculpture, "Palmyre," crafted from polished metal. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Its reflective surface is immediately captivating! There's a futuristic elegance about the streamlined form, but also something unsettlingly totemic about the vertically stacked figures. Curator: Precisely! Hajdu’s abstraction operates through a refined geometry. Note how he employs stacked forms and smooth, continuous lines to generate a subtle play between positive and negative space, volume and void. Its mirror finish invites the viewer to interact, literally, with the space inhabited by the art. Editor: That brings to mind ancient goddess figures and the way they embody concepts of protection and fertility, reflected here with a contemporary polish. Considering the title "Palmyre", it evokes the memory of a lost city, a symbol of a flourishing civilization. Is the sculpture a futuristic monument to what was lost, or an assertion of enduring forms across time? Curator: An insightful parallel. Hajdu explores pure form; he reduces figuration to almost architectural essence. He isn't replicating Palmyra's appearance, he is extracting fundamental notions of proportion and harmony. See the deliberate contrast of rounded and acute angles, the counterpoint of the solid base and the slender neck; a series of balanced oppositions. Editor: Still, this gleaming metallic surface speaks to cultural memory. Metals hold symbolism relating to power, divinity, and longevity. Their capacity to reflect means these materials possess a spectral and transformative quality, capable of reminding viewers of something larger than themselves. The work feels both futuristic and ancestral simultaneously. Curator: I find myself most impressed by Hajdu's mastery in revealing complexity through reductivism. In that way it holds up incredibly well. Editor: Agreed, Hajdu’s sculpture, viewed through the lenses of memory and abstraction, resonates deeply across histories. Its shimmering surfaces continue to ask difficult and relevant questions about the relationship between the present and our collective human story.