Six Blocks
Tibor Babos
David Star Collection
Paradox Constructivism / Constructive Unrealism
2023
60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.6 in)
Oil on 3D+ Canvas
Budapest
In Private Collection
Six Blocks (2023) by Tibor Babos is a study in orientation and disorientation — a geometric riddle that doubles as a psychological map. Composed of six interlocking prisms radiating in star-like formation, the work hovers between visual logic and spatial contradiction. At first glance, the structure feels ordered, even crystalline. But the longer one looks, the more the form begins to drift — forward and backward, in and out — as if pulled by the weight of unseen choices.
This is the core of the piece: not the star itself, but the sense of standing at its center. Babos has described this composition as a visual metaphor for the individual surrounded by unresolved possibilities. The blocks point in all directions, yet none offer clarity. This is not a moment of decision — it is the condition of decision-making. Each block becomes a projection of the self, a path imagined, taken, or deferred. And at the core of it all: uncertainty, rendered not as emptiness, but as a dense, purple fog.
Executed in oil on 3D+ canvas, Six Blocks occupies a liminal space between sculpture and painting. Its surfaces shift between coarse, textured panels and smooth, satin-like planes. The texture is deliberate — not decorative, but architectural. Some surfaces appear chiseled, others almost polished. On certain edges, the raw canvas peeks through, exposing technical drawing lines — a reminder that beneath every illusion lies structure, and beneath every structure, choice.
The color palette is restrained yet charged. A spectrum of purples — from deep violet to pale lavender — saturates the form, creating a slow rhythm across the composition. Purple, historically linked to introspection, ambiguity, and transformation, becomes a psychological atmosphere. There are no bold contrasts, no dramatic punctuation. Instead, the painting hums in half-tones — echoing the quiet confusion of modern decision fatigue, where every direction is both urgent and unclear.
While Six Blocks draws formal parallels to Constructivism and Op Art, it resists their rational detachment. Babos’s Constructive Unrealism is not interested in perfection or illusion for its own sake. Here, geometry is charged with emotional weight. The impossible structure doesn’t merely trick the eye — it mirrors the internal experience of navigating complexity with no fixed horizon. If Vasarely offered optical delight, Babos offers psychological tension.
Within the David Star collection, this work holds a central place — not as a religious symbol, but as a meditation on convergence and disarray. The star-like shape alludes to systems of order, to something sacred or ancient. Yet its logic collapses upon inspection, revealing not harmony but fragmentation. The painting doesn’t deny the possibility of alignment — it simply suggests that such alignment may not come from the outside. It must be reckoned with inwardly.
There is no resolution offered here. No path is privileged over another. The viewer is left to circle the form, both visually and conceptually, until what remains is not a single answer but a heightened awareness of the question. Six Blocks is less a painting to be decoded than a condition to be inhabited.
Presented in a controlled environment with directional lighting, the work reveals unexpected depth and shadow. The 3D+ canvas absorbs and reflects light differently across its surfaces, enhancing the illusion of movement and instability. In this way, the painting continues to shift — not only in space, but in meaning — depending on how it is approached.
Six Blocks is a quiet, complex achievement. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t resolve. It observes the architecture of uncertainty and renders it visible. In doing so, Babos doesn’t ask the viewer to choose. He asks them to stand still — at the center of contradiction — and look around.
