Based in Serbia, Endre Penovác is the Hungarian artist who produces mesmerizing artworks. And, if you’re a cat-person, his pieces will be right up your alley (they happen to form a lot of his subject matter).
Actually, you will have probably have seen his work on Instagram as he’s become quite the hit, reaching over 85K followers and counting.
Felicity Carter: What is your first memory of art?
Endre Penovác: The smell of a local painter’s studio. It was a mixed scent of the canvas, oil paint, solvent and as it turned out later, this was a decisive experience for me.
FC: Tell us about your background and how you became an artist…
EP: I grew up in a small village. No one had an interest in art in my family, however, for some reason, I was more interested in drawing than any other children usually in their childhood.
This lead to the following advice when I left to high school from my village: “You love to draw, go to an ‘architecture’ high school” my parents told me. But even at this point, I had no idea that there are such schools that teach fine arts, not even talking about academy level of education.
A few years later, during my military service, a Macedonian friend opened my eyes: he was older than me and had graduated from the academy of fine arts. Actually, this was the time when I decided what I should do next. Must say that I read a lot and It had an enormous effect on me.
Looking for my path, experiencing life and the reading combined with my passion for drawing and painting created the circumstances for me.
FC: Which artists past or present have had an impact on you?
EP: He wasn’t a fine art artist who impacted me. Herman Hesse – the writer – provided an impression both in terms for life and art. Hesse’s philosophy meant more important foundation for me, than looking at any painter’s albums.
FC: How would you sum up your aesthetic?
EP: The unity and harmony of contrasts.
FC: What do you look to communicate through your work?
EP: I’m looking for a way to share my experience, my message, my philosophy in a way where I also leave the opportunity to the observer/receiver to discover his own experiences, messages, philosophy as well.
My goal is not to provide a ready-made solution and vision, but to share the mood of my message. The goal for the receiver is to discover the experience what ignited the creation of the artwork inside me.
It was very interesting to me when my ‘Plough Fields in Vojvodina’ drawings were welcomed by the audience in Hamburg, but as it turned out later, they didn’t see the fields, they saw the sea instead. But the message was well received.
FC: How your style evolved?
EP: I always try to give form to the duality that engages me, in this case through the language of fine arts. For decades I have been interested in how we can achieve harmony between spontaneous and rational elements. My artworks also reflect this interest.
FC: What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve been given when handling the art world?
EP: As a writer impressed me the most, I didn’t get the best advice through words but by studying traditional Chinese painting. The longer I look at them, the more it seems that they knew everything already half a millennium ago about painting.
Follow Endre on Instagram and buy his pieces on Saatchi Art.
