Reinhard Buskies: Focusing on the concrete

In Hana Hasilik's work, a single geometric form element is the focus: the biconvex lentoid. For almost three decades, the artist has been working with the lens shape that is curved on both sides, and she has repeatedly found new aspects and ways of looking at it in different constellations. In cultural history, the lens shape has a long tradition that can be traced back to the Bronze Age. Seals and jewellery in the form of a lentoid can be found as early as the Helladic and Minoan cultures (see stamp illustration). In contemporary art, however, the lentoid as a geometric form element receives surprisingly little attention. Here, Hana Hasilik has found her own and specific approach.

Even if Hana Hasilik does not explicitly identify with a particular movement, her work can be seen in the context of the idea of ​​concrete art, as it was first formulated in the 1920s. Theo van Doesburg introduced the term in 1924 and expanded on it in his founding manifesto of the Art Concret group, published in 1930. The essential characteristic of concrete art is therefore the rejection of representationalism and the reduction to elementary means of design, because nothing is “more concrete, more real, than a line, a colour, a surface.” In this general sense, Hana Hasilik’s art also proves to be concrete; her works focus on the concrete experience of form and structure.

The concept of concrete art is generally associated with the striving for rationality and objectivity. For Max Bill, a main representative of the Zurich Concrete movement in the post-war period, it is about “representing abstract ideas in a sensual and tangible form.” For Max Bill, concrete art is "in its final consequence the pure expression of harmonious measure and law. It organizes systems and gives life to these orders using artistic means." In particular, the idea of ​​bringing abstract orders to life using the means of art is also a central motif in Hana Hasilik's work.

At the same time, however, Hana Hasilik, as a member of the next generation, goes beyond Max Bill. She follows a broader understanding, as has recently been propagated by the Museum for Concrete Art in Ingolstadt, among others. In this, concrete art appears as "an immediate art movement based on sensory experience, [...] that does not seek to depict the visible world. Therefore, colours, shapes, lines and, to a greater extent, materials are given special importance. [...] It is about structures, systems, rhythm, programming, information, perception, social utopias and reforms." Elaborate structures with regularity, rhythm or shift are characteristic of Hana Hasilik's art work. The perception and the primary aesthetic experience of the artefacts may be potentiated by uncovering their construction rules.

If we look at a work such as the grid sculpture Line, for example, the underlying design principle is obvious. The nucleus is the module Tetraktys[1] (which refers to ancient Greek numerology) with four diagonal rows of lentoids confined to a square base. Starting with a single lentoid in the corner, the number of lentoids increases by one with each row. The four rows cover an isosceles right triangle, half of a square. The art piece Line is composed of 36 modules that are arranged in 6 rows and 6 columns. In this regular setting, the triangles take up the diagonal sequence axis of symmetry. However, the essential feature, and also the source of the title, is not the system of rules, but rather a visible corridor that runs between stripes covered with lentoids. An empty stripe set off the diagonal work as an empty stripe.

The empty surface marks a visual gap in a pretended symmetry of the work, like a breaking point where the system, despite its internal logic, does not seem to fully work. A similar phenomenon can be observed in the work Diagonal, where the lines of the lentoids do not run through but are reversed while intersecting the diagonal centre line. Here the system becomes, in a sense, a disruptive factor in itself.

By focusing on the sensually perceptible dimensions of Hana Hasilik's sculptures, another aspect comes into view, namely the interplay of form, light and shadow. While we hardly notice the casting of shadows as a natural accompaniment to things, it takes on particular importance in Hana Hasilik's works. When looking at her works, the shadow becomes a design element that varies its appearance depending on the incidence of light.

This is particularly evident in the black and white photographs of the sculptures in this volume. How much the effect of the works can change under the influence of light is evident in the two images of the work Freiraum, each of which was photographed in different lighting. While in one image the shadows are barely visible, in the other photo they stand out visibly as negatively inverted forms and appear optically equivalent to the lentoids themselves.

The material properties of the sculptures play a part in the special effect of light and shadow. The use of white clay, the lack of colour or a reflective glaze make the interplay of light and shadow all the more apparent. The white, matt surface becomes a projection surface for the shadow form. This can be seen, for example, in works such as Bewegung, where the shadow visibly emphasizes the rhythmic character of the arrangement, or Triktys, where the shadow appears like a continuation of the sculptural arrangement on the wall or surface.

Last but not least, the social implications of Hana Hasilik's work should be discussed. Even if the works appear abstract and do not initially convey any messages outside of themselves, there is a subliminal political component in Hana Hasilik's work. For Hasilik, who experienced the communist system in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and 60s as a young adult and fled to the West in 1970, her abstract formal language is ultimately also connoted with her personal political and social experiences. This is indicated by work titles such as Freiraum, Die neue Gesellschaft or Neuer Anfang. Again and again, it is about the attitude of the individual in an obvious or latent social conformism. The work Freiraum, for example, can be seen against this background as a model of breaking out of line, of opening up or a symbol of fighting for freedom in a restrictive society.

In the context of these remarks, only a few aspects of Hana Hasilik's art could be illuminated. But it should be clear that this is never about dealing with abstract formal principles - that would be a misunderstood concept of concrete art anyway. Rather, it is about a lively exchange between the work and the viewer. The sculptures prove to be challenges to a more conscious way of seeing, and even more: they challenge us to "visual thinking", as the perception psychologist Rudolf Arnheim called it.[2]

Reinhard Buskies, art historian, is artistic director of the Bochum Art Association

                                                                (Translation from German by Andrej Haslik)

References

[1] In the number theory of Pythagoreans, the term tektraktys  refers to numbers 1 through 4 thus representing the fundaments and the hierarchy of Cosmos. The four add up to 10, the base of the decimal system, a number of a higher order with the central role in cosmology and music theory, a key to understanding world harmony.

[2] Rudolf Arnheim: Anschauliches Denken. Zur Einheit von Bild und Konzept. Cologne, 1996; and: ibid., Kunst und Sehen. Eine Psychologie des schöpferischen Augen, Berlin, New York, 1978.