Haász István
Ideal type, phenomenological description, conceptualization
This paper is not about the totality of Haász' works but about a single group of creations that
has grown for over a decade now. My decision is both psychologically and methodologically
motivated, because I realized that after visiting a studio or an exhibition, it not individual works
that are usually retained in our memory but general visual impressions. A critic's work is usually
obstacled or falsified by the merging of concrete memories, whereas now I would like to
use the condensing and abstracting effort of remembering in this evaluation, in other words: I
wish to break down to its components - to deconstruct - the designation "yellow geometric reliefs
and objects" associated with István Haász, and then fill it with meanings again. It is tempting
to adapt István Haász' working method to this effort - it is a possible art that creates works
from a finite number of basic elements with the help of operations ordered to the elements. It
will be seen, however, that Haász' work cannot be subjected to such simplification. The sight of
the works is, at the same time, relatively simple as few elements can be differentiated (one colour,
one overall form, and within that the interrelations of a few details of form, lines, shadows).
Seemingly all we have to do is describe them, that is, to create the concept of "Haász works" and
order values to them. Conceptualization takes place just as the author - say - of a dictionary entry
creates the concept of "chair". In this way: Haász object: "a composition coloured yellow or
a derivative of yellow, rising out of the base plane, consisting of two-to-five or more irregular
quadrangle elements making up an overall rectangle format."
