Index – Culture – From which planet fell here?

Balázs Gyeőry dolls carry the stylistic traits of their creator so much that they almost don’t care what kind of work they encounter, they get to know the artist in them. Be it Christmas elves, spring fairies, and dolls depicting people.

So Gyorey’s work is divisive. Some fear the characters, find them frightening, and others love their work to the point of admiration, and become collectors.

The artist had a creative spirit from an early age: while other children were building a castle out of clay in the kindergarten, he was also trying to form creatures out of it. It later turned out that drawing was going well for him, so he went into artistic preparation, but until his teens he didn’t really know how to turn his creative energy into work. When he was accepted into Pecs art at the age of 14, he could not determine which branch of art was closest to him.

In the end, I picked the drafting major, and when asked why exactly that is, all I can say was an exception. They didn’t even receive it. In hindsight, I feel I should have chosen pottery because soon after, it turns out, the decoration is the closest to me.

But he was always interested in puppet art. He found it mysterious to pour life into matter without a soul. At the age of eighteen, he came across a big children’s book in which he found the work of an American artist, EJ Taylor, who also made dolls for the Tiffany store window. He was mesmerized by this method in just one moment, and he realized that “it could be just that” opening up a whole new world for him.

My grandmother’s brother was okay with Lajos Kós, founder of the Bóbita Puppet Theater. They won gold one after another with Laszlo Vitez. I was also attached to the character, and I also made a doll from László Vitéz, with which I got into the puppet theater. I presented a piece of art at the time I was hired as a mule. This means I can work in the workshop. Then once I looked at the recording and realized what I was doing was scandalous, so I stopped acting.

But as a puppeteer, he received positive reactions. An acquaintance once took one of Gyuri dolls with him to Japan, to a puppet artist there who picked up the doll on his nails and found it a skillful work.

And children began to move to the storefronts of luxury flower shops in Budapest very slowly, so many tourists were introduced to shapes that seemed a bit strange at first, but still wonderful. The fame of the dolls spread to the big world, and Gye ordersry received orders from more and more countries.

Someone asked me once, from which planet did I fall here? In fact, I can understand this question because I have noticed in my work that since I have been dealing with Theosophy and have indulged more and more in myself, the children have gotten deeper as well.

He had many exhibitions, always with other types of dolls, especially in Pecs and Budapest. They held a joint exhibition with cartoonist Tamas Kovis, where Gyori made dolls based on the sketches. Strassz A. Ciri and his exhibition “Movements and Planes in Pecs” at the House of Arts and Literature.

Since there are no artists in Hungary who make their living solely from making dolls, it’s no wonder that Gyery has actually worked in several places. After puppet theater, he was drawn to gastronomy and then completed a nursing training. He worked in psychiatry with the elderly, and also took care of his grandmother.

The people he met, the jobs he worked in, and the life situations he faced, all had an effect on the dolls. Old facial features, curved back and calm, long-standing gazes all return to his work. Her dolls are mainly arranged as a decorative element, but they are also required to mold a real persona in the form of a doll.

I had a client who designed a template for one of his business partners. He said he had never seen his colleague smile when the baby handed him over. No matter how cool the dolls are, I definitely want to show the light with them.

(Cover Photo: Balaz Gyori dolls. Photo: Balázs Gyeőry)