There is no secret

interview with Ágnes Hincz
Nõk Lapja (Women' Paper), 1999

• drawing requires the mind to participate,(...) the cold, rational mind
• There is no secret
• If somebody is struggling with pictures he cannot complete what s/he wants.
• Hungarian contemporary art is like a televison that nobody watches.
• I cannot adjust myself to others...

Agnes Hincz is a true "hiding artist". She rarely exhibits. She doesn't attend private viewings and the press is not very concerned about her. She is a virtuosic drawer, and she has made more drawings than could be shown at the Exhibition Hall, in Budapest. Her drawings are cosmic and lyric at the same time.

r: Can I call your drawings typically feminine?

Hincz: I don't know. What are typically masculine drawings like?

r: Your drawings seem to be instinctive. They do not represent real objects or scenes. It seems to me that you are freely following your moods.

Hincz: I'm happy if you think so. Actually, the drawings are not instinctive at all. You can do many things instinctively, but drawing requires the mind to participate, if you know what I mean, the cold, rational mind. Some make sketches; let's say for a painting. The function of the sketch is to clear your mind, or just to play with an idea. But my drawings are not sketches; they are carefully planned and must be constructed like a bridge or a house. Would you like to live in a house that was built instinctively?

r: There is no trace of corrections in your drawings. The lines show confidence. What is your secret? Do you make sketches?

Hincz: I rarely make sketches, only if I don't want to forget something. There is no secret. I have been doing this for ten years; I am not interested in colors or plasticity but in drawing. I tried many types of media and drawing tools. The pencil leaves hardly any trace, and I don't like its silvery shine, charcoal is rude and not sensible enough to follow the movement of the hand. Eventually I invented my own medium. During this I learned to draw.

This is not a painting which you can paint over, or scratch off if you don't like something. Drawing requires trained hands more than theory.

r: Do you struggle with drawing? Do you have bungled drawings?

Hincz: Yes. I throw them out. If somebody is struggling with pictures he cannot complete what s/he wants. Or s/he is just talking about struggle. There is even talk of inspiration or gifted persons. There are no such things. The nineteenth century philosophers made them up.

Heine said about one of his poems that he put it down at the light of the thunder since the storm blew out the candle in his room in the tower. Later, in an estate a bunch of drafts were found, drafts for that poem. Heine was working on it for months, he was chiseling it, putting an article here or there, etc.

r: Why are you "hiding"?

Hincz: I don't want to be a woman artist.

r: Are you afraid of being ghettoized?

Hincz: I am not afraid of it, but I don't need it either. Hungarian contemporary art is like a televison that nobody watches.

r: You don't want to be a part of contemporary art?

Hincz: Does that mean that somebody writes about me in the art magazine, "Balkon", I can enjoy the disco in "Trafo", or get first prize in the giant-poster competition? These are such childish things, as if they can be taken seriously. The problem is that many people take these things serously when actually they aren't even funny. I only want to make drawings. An art historian convinced me to set up a website, and a friend of mine put it together. So, anybody interested can have a look. The drawings should be parts of something, not me. I feel fine, thank you.

r: Who were your masters?

Hincz: Once I applied to the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts but never went to the entrance examination which consisted of drawing a living model. I was frightened. I still feel strange moving a piece of charcoal over paper to create the illusion of a human face. I have learnt a lot from conversations with older, more experienced artists, though they have not seen my drawings. It may very well be that they don't even know that I make drawings.

r: Why not?

Hincz: I thought you would ask this. If you are among artists, they are very nice if you express an interest in their work, but actually, they hate one another.

r: Don't you think they consider you an amateur?

Hincz: No. And I'm not amateur, if you mean dilettante. I don't make a considerable amount of money from my drawings. I am not a "professional" artist, and neither are those whom I consider respectable artists. What I like about drawing is that it is a lonely activity, unlike theatre or music. I cannot adjust myself to others, and the "community" of professional artists reminds me of a large choir.

r: Do you sell drawings?

Hincz: Only a few. I have a gallerist in Amsterdam, sometimes he sells one or two of my works.

r: Why Amsterdam?

Hincz: I spent years there. But we agreed that we wouldn't talk about my private life.

r: What are your plans?

Hincz: I want to draw. More than and better than ever.

M.I.