Rag with Dog

Rag with Dog – István Bálind

Opening by: András Réz, aesthete
2025.11.04. kedd 18:00

Rag
Object / Material
old, torn, worn-out, useless clothing — or, more generally, any worn-out, worthless object
scrap, rag, shred, junk, garbage
Human / Physical state
helpless, weak, miserable, shabby, wretched
Human / Moral quality
spineless, pretentious, good-for-nothing, contemptible person

CHANCE
the occurrence of a unique event (or process, happening) not intended or foreseen; in common speech, something undefined, unpredictable, or irregular.

PAINTER’S RAG
the by-product of the creative process.

Or is it?
These paint-soaked pieces of fabric were forged together by human intent and divine accident — in the light (or shadow) of indirect consciousness — as they came into being during the making of another image. The choice of colors is deliberate, yet entirely random where and to what extent they touch these discarded bits of canvas. A drop of paint may meet the rag when I wipe my brush, clean the worktable or easel, or dry a container. As a result, each composition is completely spontaneous and accidental, free from any pattern or constraint, and entirely devoid of representational intent. What is thus ensured is an unbroken, uncontrolled creative freedom — the very essence of bold associative creation that brings forth the new. In this sense, chance plays a strongly determining role — yet, in the right proportion, it remains guided. And that is precisely why these painter’s rags, these “accidental paintings,” can step forward as works of art.

The protagonist of my earlier works — the seated, schematic pictogram dog — has fallen out of the frame. Stripped of its safe, geometric environment, it now returns, naked and in dramatic scale, among the “rags.”

Rag with Dog
red, blue worthless dog
scrap
yellow shabby, torn, black green purple,
ócska
elrongyolt piros
snassz
rongyélet, zöld foszlány
sárga
szakadt, csapnivaló, mihaszna vörös
gönc, arany piros cián, rongy
rongyrázás
sárga lila, szürke, fehér- fekete, rózsaszín
rongy
festőrongy
kék
cafat