Po Hagström, Stockholm – About a village that didn’t recognize the value of art, and about the artist who painted anyway.
A dear friend of mine, artist Paul Cseplö, died May 12 after many years of leukemia.
When I was a child, Paul was the only artist in the small village where I grew up. He came to this northern part of Sweden with his family as a child, escaping the war in Hungary. Soon he began to paint this changing landscape and continued to do so for the rest of his life.
In our village art could be nice, but it was never considered valuable, and the artist himself was regarded as a queer fellow. Paul was told that posters were cheaper, so why buy paintings? This didn’t stop him though, he trusted in art as a force in itself and he knew what it could do. He proved to be right.
Despite people’s low esteem of art and strong opinions about his paintings, they still wanted his services. So when the old school was rebuilt to a hostel, Paul painted all the walls with scenes from nature – for free. And when they built a new dance floor, Paul painted its background. Not that he wouldn’t have appreciated something in return, and not necessarily monetary, but it always turned out to have been for free. And he kept painting for free for 30 years. Few places in this village are without the signature of Paul. Art is everywhere, in homes and the pizzeria, in offices and in boathouses, on trailers and in the old people’s home.
Did the village deserve this? I don’t think so. But Paul made a choice and he painted, and he made sure that art would be present everywhere.
According to Paul nothing really disappears, but this world still is a duller place now that he went off to wherever.
Is there any way to show us a picture of one of his village paintings?
Madame Monet
Writing, Painting, Music, and Wine
winewriter.wordpress.com
Hi Madame Monet
I chose not to include his paintings in the text, since the text is about the results of his work, rather than about the paintings themselves. And also because I dont have any good quality pictures (I dont live there any more).
But I have mailed you a bad quality picture anyway.
Po
Tjena Po.
Han va en kul, intressant och säregen prick Paul. Fick förmånen att träffa honom några gånger tillsammans med en annan kul kille, din far. Känns som dom är aningen utrotshotade de där gubbarna…Fint av dig att hedra Paul med denna sida tycker jag!
Nog sagt. Må han vila i frid.
Hörs!
Tjena själv Göran
Ja, det blir allt tunnare med det gamla gardet i byn. Bygden känns allt mindre intressant.
Vi hörs, ha det bra,
Po
Hej!
Vad fint du har skrivit om Paul. Som du förstår saknar vi honom mycket.Tänk vad många intressanta diskussioner vi hade kring köksbordet.
Hälsningar Solveig o Karl-Otto