 In the Nitra 2007 exhibition (photo coverage in my exhibit blog) I have had the great pleasure of meeting Robert Steven from Indonesia. I am a great fan of his work since I purchased his book, Vision of my soul, which is a beatiful book presenting his own bonsai collection, also his works in progress and explaining his artistic approach. It focuses solely on the art side of bonsai. So when I have arrived in Nitra at the exhibition site, it was a great surprise for me to see him standing at the pavilon gate, talking to a fellow bonsai enthusiast. We got into a conversation and he has shown us (me and my friend Tamás Virág) the juniper he has been working on the previous day. He got a pretty amazing tree out of a chaotic raw material. You can the end result on this picture. We have also been talking about the possibility of Robert coming to our autumn 2008 exhibition as a demonstrator. He is a really nice and friendly guy :) |
Then we took a look at the pine tree he has stlyed the day before, and met the Hungarian bonsai collector György Rácz. He is probably one of the biggest yamadori collectors in Hungary and specialises in absolutely large-size trees. Robert and Gyuri have been talking about the collected pine Gyuri was about to style during his demonstration the same day. The pine was a pretty impossible material with quite a few problematic areas. The second picture shows Gyuri and Robert talking about the pine with me listening in between. In my exhibit blog you can see a picture about Gyuri in action, styling the pine.  |
Later that day I have caught Robert with a small group of bonsai enthusiasts from Slovakia and Poland, sharing his thoughts about the exhibited trees and answering questions. During this tree critique, Robert has been concentrating on artistic issues, just like in his aforementioned book. Many of the critiques he has expressed were about the incongruences he has pointed out on the trees, like a bonsai with a causal, informal trunk featuring a too formal crown. On the third picture Robert is sharing his thoughts about a juniper of Milan Roskos which I have known for some years from exhibitions and am a great fan of. For me it is a very abstract tree and I like it for this. Robert has pointed out though that the hollowed-out, sabamiki-style trunk, which speaks of a long, hard life contradicts the lush foliage of the main branch and suggested removing the entire right-hand side of the tree. I have to agree that the tree looks much more credible that way (although it would lose the strong geometric effect of its lines for which I have admired its design - I liked the proposed new image a lot). It was a great experience meeting this real artist and a chance to learn a lot from his tree critiques. His enthusiasm and talent for the art and his open and friendly personality makes him a really amazing person.  |
I am attaching a picture of Milan's juniper so you can see what Robert has meant. This picture was taken at last year's exhibition in Budapest.  |
The pictures in this post, with the exception of the last one, have been taken by Tamás Virág, thanks a lot Tamás.
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