Traumdeutung, Giving Meaning to Dreams

It is a pleasure to read about István Bodóczky’s 40 year journey through the art world in his new book Traumdetung (giving meaning to dreams).  It contains a breathtaking gallery of István’s work, but also seeks to explain his artistic progression towards kites.  Many of Istvan’s ideas of “hidden symmetry” are explained by essayist Hedvig Turai’s analysis of his career.  Turai emphasizes Bodóczky’s active family life and his role as stay-at-home-artist/father, and characterizes Bodóczky as a “male feminist”.  He had the ability to keep teaching, his private life, kiting, and painting separate, but Turai makes the point that the simple question, “what did the pictures want?”, changed Bodóczky’s art.  The picture wanted to fly and the picture could fly.