We remember the death of our dear friend and one of the most important members of our creative community, Tamás Mág. First István Jánosi (one of the owners of the Vándorfény Gallery) will say goodbye with his personal words, then his friend László Farkas from Várvárad will review his career and remember him.
The most difficult moment! (István Jánosi)
To tell about the loss of a Friend, to describe in a few words the experiences of the years we lived and worked through together, to know as a gallery owner the most intimate struggles of
Artist-Friend about art, to search for the new together, building on the old! To embrace the wealth of knowledge he has selflessly passed on. To know that you are among the greatest! To be together many times at the birth of the painting, in that mystical moment, to toast his “baptism”, to see and feel his confident technical, brilliant coloristic knowledge, to drift in his exuberant life spirit….
Thomas! My dear Friend!
It won’t work! The goodbye….
No!
Let’s have a celestial exhibition instead, as we used to do, waiting until the last moment, then basking in the love of the audience, talking, redeeming everything, rejoicing in each other, rejoicing in life!
You will!
Hugs! We hug you!
In memory of Tamás Mág, painter from Oradea (László Farkas)
Once again, Varad has become poorer. A man who had left his hometown, but who carried it in his heart, had passed into eternity. His paintings of the town radiate the spirit of the places that have been transferred from his brush to canvas.
Life course
He consciously prepared for a career as an artist. He studied at the Lyceum of Music and Fine Arts, where he studied painting, graphic arts and sculpture, and then at the Free Art University, where he was a pupil of Román Motti. Over the years, he experimented a lot, using different techniques in his work.
Feeling that he could not put his artistic skills to good use under the communist regime, he moved to Hungary with his family in 1989. He found his new home in Felsőgöd. He travelled a lot and on these trips he painted a lot. The world is very beautiful everywhere, he confessed, and this creed radiates from his works. He painted in Transylvania and Hungary, but his works also include landscapes from Italy, France and Canada. He is conservative and uncompromising in his art, and a devotee of the Impressionist tradition. His paintings can be found in several countries in Europe, but also in North America, Japan and Taiwan. He had his first exhibition in Oradea in 1974, but after 1989 his works were exhibited several times in Budapest, Debrecen, Miskolc, Pécs, Vác and he also had an exhibition in Marignane, France.
He always thought of his hometown with love and visited it every year as long as his parents were alive. On these occasions, he would also paint pictures of the places in várad that were so dear to him. The last time he visited his hometown was in November 2017, when he promised the writer of these lines that one day, at a meeting of Oradea descendants, he would be a guest of his hometown, and an event would be celebrated with a solo exhibition. Unfortunately, this plan did not materialize.
We hope that in the near future we will be able to see his works in Oradea, in a posthumous exhibition.
Rest in peace, Tamás Mág!
