The oeuvre of Z. Gács György (1914–1978) represents one of the most consistent attempts in 20th-century Hungarian art to explore how a work of art can become an active, perception-shaping element of the built environment. His career began in painting, but it became truly decisive at the point when his attention turned toward glass, light, and movement—that is, toward those material and optical phenomena that became fundamental experiences of modern urban life. Z. Gács was active in a period when a broad circle of artists believed in scientific and technological progress. From the interwar avant-garde tradition through the decades following World War II, many Hungarian artists shared the conviction that science and technological development could define a new visual language and a new social role for art. The light experiments of László Moholy-Nagy, the constructivist picture architectures of Lajos Kassák, and the optimistic faith of abstract and geometric movements all stemmed from the belief that modern technology was capable of transforming perception.

In the decades after World War II, architecture relied on new materials such as concrete, steel, and glass, which often resulted in cold, monotonous environments. Z. Gács’s response to this was not rejection but transformation, as he was convinced that architectural ornamentation should always be based on the dominant building material of its time. For him, glass was not a decorative accessory but a means of shaping space.

At the beginning of his career, he worked in painting, then designed traditional leaded stained-glass windows, and gradually arrived at autonomous glass sculptures. In the 1950s and 1960s, sheet glass was the most readily available material through which he was able to create a new kind of plasticity by means of layering, bonding, mirroring, and the controlled use of light. The glass surfaces reflected and multiplied the surrounding environment, allowing the work to function not as a closed form but as a phenomenon existing together with space.

In his mature period, the role of movement and light became decisive in the works of Z. Gács György. In his luminokinetic works, he created moving visual experiences by altering the rhythm and direction of light, while in his luminodynamic pieces, the interaction of light and material generated a continuously changing spectacle. His works thus relied on the viewer’s movement and spatial perception. On the one hand, the constantly shifting visual experience was produced by the viewer’s change of position; on the other, in a pioneering manner, he also employed real kinetic elements. He was among the first in Hungary to create motor-driven mobile sculptures, in which glass, light, and movement mutually reinforced one another to transform perception.

One outstanding work of this approach is the wall-mounted glass sculpture created in 1976 for the foyer of the Budapest Puppet Theatre, works from which can be seen in the spaces of acb Bak Imre Space. The exhibited pieces bear witness simultaneously to the spirit of an era, to faith in progress, to the importance of material research, and to the exceptional role of Z. Gács György, who as both educator and artist fundamentally shaped the direction of Hungarian glass art. Even today, his works invite us to perceive space not as a static backdrop, but as a continuously changing, living medium.