László Lakner

It was in December 1970 that László Lakner read the artistic director of documenta 5, Harald Szeemann’s call for applications to an international exhibition with the title Befragung der Realität – Bildwelten (Questioning Reality – Picture Worlds).

Marked by LAKNER’s signature dark tone and a brownish palette, Silence is an early exemplar of Hungarian Photorealism, which can be understood both as something that emerged parallel with Western Hyperrealism, and as a follow-up to the Hungarian tradition of realistic painting.

László Lakner made his photorealist painting by enlarging a photograph found in the major Soviet illustrated magazine Orgoniok (no 49., 1972.) featuring Kazakh cotton-pickers.