The art between shadows and colors.
Born in Debrecen, Hungary, Pal B. Stock is an artist who portrays the world through his shadow-painted eyes. He colors nature and its beauty through his hands and thoughts, and in his works, everyone is free to find what they want.
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”, Pablo Picasso once said. Pal B. Stock is one of those artists who, despite the difficulties he faced on his way, still decided to make art his life. Pal was born in 1964 in Debrecen, Hungary, in a poor, but loving, family. He was supposed to be a veterinarian, but his passion for art and painting, however, was profound and drove him a very different direction. Instead of studying the sciences, Pal entered the Art Academy in Budapest, but in 1987 the political climate in Hungary forced him to leave the Country and the academy before he finished. He left for Germany and settled in Munich for a period of ‘survival’ as he struggled to make his way. He was unable to paint or pursue his art studies during this time.
In 1995, he moved to New York City and studied at the Parsons School of Art and Design. The golden era of Pal. There, he met an inspiring circle of artists, and, during this period, he developed his unique technique using beeswax, oil paint and wood, for which he is famous today. The beeswax is not a random choice. In fact, with beeswax had a powerful magnetic attraction for him evoking childhood images dear to the artist.
Pal grew up in a poor household without electricity and the only light that gave life and colour to the house was provided by candles. He would light two and use them to read. He was ravished by the movement of the flame and how it mirrored on the walls of the house. He was also ravished by the wax, whom he often played with to extend the length of the candle’s life. There seemed no other choice but to paint with wax. Works that are about beauty, the beauty of life and “joie de vivre”. Pal is inspired by nature, beauty, peace, harmony: all of which serve as a prompt for spirituality.
His works of art are minimal. The backgrounds of Pal’s paintings are simple and monochrome, allowing the colour and light in the foreground to be the real protagonists. His unique technique allows him to craft a glow that transcends the transparency of the beeswax which doesn’t mix with oil paint, creating tension in the image. If the wax and the oil paint don’t mix, the surface, background, colours and abstract forms remain in constant dialogue with each other and the viewer. This tension creates the illusion of a moving space where the viewer is literally drawn into an unconscious sensuality of the surface, a beauty of movement that invokes peace and serenity.
At a young age, due to an eye disease, he lost his sight, and just as Beethoven who lost his hearing and never stopped playing, so too Pal never stopped painting. Pal paints with his heart and his emotions, with what is inside him, in his new dimension. Lost in the shadows, he seeks for light.
What is very interesting about his work is that people experience his work very differently. Where some see the fury of nature, others may see beauty. Where some see darkness, others see spirituality. A free interpretation of colour, movement and thought. This is why Pal does not name his works, because the viewer has to feel his works based on his own experience, his own mood, his own life.
Pal B. Stock’s works are about mystery, the ineffable, searching and finding. He is fascinated by what may hide outside the visible image, what lies behind what we perceive in our immediate vicinity. And so, Pal’s works are invisible and visible accesses to new dimensions where the viewer can dive in. Places of intense emotion and isolation, an unknown and mysterious world.
Pal’s works seem to have a constant movement within them that creates a never-ending glow. This is possible thanks to the mass-coloured wax which allows it to be coloured in layers, creating an image that looks lit from within. It is this glowing from inside that makes the emotions provoked by these paintings felt and underlines their power. Pal’s paintings are a window into his world and ours at the same time. They are a subjective and emotional answer to nature. There is a perception of the world moving but conveying calm and serenity.
Pal has lived and worked in Berlin since 2010 and is a member of the Wax Encaustic Society. His pictures are part of major private and corporate collections in the USA, Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, and France. He has exhibited in several galleries worldwide, including Kahan Art Space in Budapest, Anaid Art Gallery and Woeske Gallery both in Berlin, Dynamo Gallery in Miami and Cheryl Hazan Gallery in New York. He has often taken part in group exhibitions, loaning his works to international galleries that appreciate his work. Pal B. Stock’s works portray a luminous world seen through shadows. A dimension that is reality, but above all thought.
Photos © Daniel Sonnentag Photography
