Both of you paint in a cheerful, colourful style that is full of life but I still would not have guessed that you are a couple. Was it painting that bought you together?
Soós: We first met at the entrance exam to the University of Art and Design and the years that have passed since formed an alliance between us in every respect. The love of colours and a carefree attitude to painting is a common principle for both of us but it is also characteristic of the entire generation that we have directly or indirectly studied with. I've been living with Marci for ten years and we married four years ago. Our son will be one this April.
Győri: The vivid and intense colours we use may indeed have a liberating effect on the viewer and this truly pleases us. But we hope most people will not erroneously think that everything that's colourful is about optimism and simply speaking, its independence can represent real freedom. A burning cadmium red can also be approached with the methods of elementary science, avoiding the playfulness or poetry in exchange for the spirituality of facts. It's a possible path, but I believe that without "dotted ball red," "mug blue," and "embrace purple," the river of painting would dry out and become lifeless.
Where did you study? Where did you see things worth copying during your travels in the world? Who are the artists you feel close to?
Soós: We travelled to many places in Europe and each trip contributed interesting inspirations to the development of our careers. An outstanding experience was the year we spent in Munich and Nuremberg where we made several exhibitions. It was a useful and prolific period. It was startling to realise how panel painting is still very much part of everyday life in Western Europe and how respectful they were with contemporary painters. It was refreshing to work in such an intellectually rich environment while in our country everyone is trying to leave behind traditional genres and painters feel pushed into being involved in video and installation.
Győri: This trend seems to be continuing even today, "hiding behind increasingly complicated guises," and slowly becoming institutionalised. It's enough to think of the type of exhibitions presented by Budapest's two big contemporary museums. We feel most attached to those painters, no matter how outdated this might sound, who make actual paintings. I would rather not quote names because anyone who knows us must remember that we have repeatedly discussed this issue. Instead, I would emphasise that there is a generation of 50- to 60-year-old painters who seem somewhat forgotten and neglected. They deserve much more respect.
I imagine you surely would not quarrel with each other about spending on paint and cleaning up after painting. Is there any area that generates debate, such as housework, raising your child or anything else?
Nóra Soós
Győri: Everyday life is totally about everyday life with its burdens and difficulties even for a painter couple. Order - or should we call it instead useful transparency - is unavoidable but this is very much due to our country's criminal and dirty disorder. The role of artistic disorder can easily lose its value in a society where almost everything is dishevelled. I'm not sure that under such surreal circumstances, Dali would have ever created surrealism, at least not through his paintings, because it would not be necessary. Why would anybody do such a thing today when life itself is so far removed from its own thousand-year priorities? What remains is dirt sparkling with "sincerity" and a multitude of forgotten, neglected and sad canvases. But that's OK, because the picture is not worthwhile anymore, only the road that leads to it....The big question is whether such a mentality is a sensible one these days, when 90 percent of new graduate painters are forced to leave the profession and, to put it more harshly, do not even get close to creating images.
Soós: Certainly, the creative process and the environment that one creates for painting are absolutely private issues. There are people who are definitely inspired by a carefree and seemingly untidy atmosphere...
Your most recent exhibition was a joint show. Why was that?
Soós: Our friendship with the collector Andrea Páncél and her family served the occasion for the exhibition. They brought up the idea for a joint exhibition and we gladly accepted. It was especially inspiring that we got the opportunity to use the paintings as messages to our son and indeed we tried to strike an optimistic tone.
You work with a well-defined system of symbols and make figurative paintings. Would you say a few words about this world? How do you choose the symbols and where do they come from? Which ones belong to just one of you and which ones are common?
Győri: We both take inspiration from the world around us. Nóra uses objects, events and situations of the everyday world and transfers them to her own transparent world of images. This adds a noble touch to seemingly very simply situations and so in her paintings a vegetable, a shoe or even a soap bubble can be equally meaningful as a pair of eyes or a body movement. My main motivating force is my belief in family, poetry and painting. It is enough for me to be completely free in painting, not being the prisoner of any school, master, gallery, curator or critic.
Are you planning further joint projects?
Soós: Certainly, we have many plans. We are planning individual and joint exhibitions but what's most important is that we will continue to make every effort in order to be able to paint, since that is indeed what we consider a vocation for life, just like our marriage and the responsibility we feel for our child.
Győri: Especially in such good weather, we take walks with our child, have an ice cream, or have a swim. All these things do not make anyone less of an artist or art lover. It's not a problem if others realise that painters are just like ordinary people.
