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István NÁDLER
The Baroque Tempter

István NÁDLER

The Baroque Tempter

Year(s)
2013
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
180x110 cm
Artist's introduction

István Nádler was born in 1938 in Visegrád. Between 1958 and 1963 he studied at the College of Fine Arts in Budapest, where his master was Gyula Hincz. He became a member of the Zugló Circle, where he was exploring the newest international tendencies with his progressive contemporaries, in Sándor Molnár’s flat. In 1968 and 1969 he participated in the Iparterv exhibitions. At the end of the 1960s, Nádler’s attention shifted to hard-edge and minimal art. However, in contrast to Imre Bak, his structural, geometric painting was based only for a short time on the schematic systems of various archaic cultures and folk motifs. His works of a solid foundation of homogeneous colour-fields, dynamic visual structures and “impersonal” structures created in the 1970s can be characterised by strident colour-connections. His pictures presented systems where each element had its specific movement abilities, movement characteristics. In the 1980s, he unexpectedly returned to his gestural painting of the 1960s. Spontaneous visual improvisation, randomness and momentariness describe his paintings as their main characteristic features. For him, the artwork became a radiant energy centre, which does not document a pre-planned theoretical-logical process but rather conveys a state of being. Gábor Kaszás

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Aladár ALMÁSY
Széchenyi also saw and included in his vision Homer, who was convictedly contemplating the white egg

Aladár ALMÁSY

Széchenyi also saw and included in his vision Homer, who was convictedly contemplating the white egg

Year(s)
2013
Technique
pastel, watercolour and ink on paper
Size
65x88,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Aladár Almásy is one of the most distinctive figures of the generation of graphic artists of the 1970s, whose graphic universe is defined by mystical-psychological symbolism, romantic sensibility and linguistic humour. Noémi Szabó, art historian, described his distinctive character vividly: "He is invested in a romantic-surrealist eclecticism, constructing a dream world far from the current age, full of pretension, but at the same time honesty as well." Born in Debrecen, Almásy completed his graphic studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1976. In the 1970s, together with Imre Szemethy, he was the successor of the generation of graphic artists that had defined the previous decade and had established an important tendency and which was marked by the names of Béla Kondor, Arnold Gross, Csaba Rékassy and Ádám Würtz. His first works were etchings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, and pen and ink drawings. His aesthetic world was characterised by jagged, fragmented draughtsmanship, dreamlike, surreal visions and playful linguistic humour. His numerous national solo exhibitions were accompanied by several international exhibitions. In his scandalous statement of 1978, he described himself as an individualistic dreamer: "My existence is a unique visual world of forms, determined by inner emotions, a pure inexhaustible world view, never committed to any fix direction." He gradually drifted towards painting in the 1980s, combining cloud-like patches of colour with his broken line work. His art, which looked to the past, evoked the poetic mood of turn-of-the-century symbolism, from the metaphorical enigma of Baudelaire to the nostalgic dreamscapes of Lajos Gulácsy. The heroes of his poetic narratives are often drawn from cultural history (István Széchenyi, Martin Luther, Zarathustra, etc.). Around the turn of the millennium, the medium of bronze sculpture also appeared in his œuvre, which embraces a wide range of techniques. His successful start to his career was accompanied by numerous state awards in the 1970s and 1980s. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Attila KONDOR
The Paths of Attention

Attila KONDOR

The Paths of Attention

Year(s)
2021
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
50x70 cm
Artist's introduction

Attila Kondor represents a figurative derivation of oil painting that emerged after the turn of the millennium, drawing on the Italian tradition and striking a metaphysical note. He also created animations based on his meditative paintings, which use elements of classical architecture and garden design. "The images of the contemplative, conceptual animations are created on canvas and prints, where the presence of stillness and silence is conveyed not only by harmonious proportions and tonal transitions of soothing colours but also by the apparition-like glow of the highlights that almost split the painting plane, suggesting a supernatural light" - wrote art historian János Schneller about the artist's meditative approach. Kondor, born in Budapest, graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2000 with a degree in Graphic Arts. At that time, his artistic perspective was characterised by the traditional oil painting method and a search for classical themes. During his time at the university, he turned against the conceptual practice that dominated the intellectual climate of the 1990s and, as a rebellious gesture, painted plein air landscapes of the Élesd countryside in Transylvania as a member of the Sensaria Group, a group of traditionalist painting students. Although the group's attitude towards classical painting resonated among the realist tendencies that were gaining ground in the early 2000s, Kondor was isolated from the group because of his essentially philosophical, contemplative character. He was strongly influenced by Italy, the home of classical architecture and traditional garden design. His early paintings depicted unpopulated, meditative Italian castle gardens with reflecting surfaces of water, silent colonnades and classical sculptures. Subsequently, his canvases depicted architectural fragments from Budapest. Smudges and tactile surfaces accompanied his pictorial character's realistic, austere perspective. By the end of the decade, he found his own distinctive, individual iconography: gateways, staircases, marble halls and libraries, lifted from classical architecture and given symbolic power. Kondor's historical and philosophical worldview suggests that the proportions of the gates, windows and spaces correspond to the "majesty of the cosmos". The pictorial voids, highlighted by graphic white stripes or negative forms, indicate the proximity of mystery in this Arcadian, introspective world. Since 2013, Kondor has also been making meditative animated films from the "raw material" of his paintings, besides the oil paintings that he is constantly creating. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Attila KONDOR
The Light of Forms I.

Attila KONDOR

The Light of Forms I.

Year(s)
2009
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
180x140 cm
Artist's introduction

Attila Kondor represents a figurative derivation of oil painting that emerged after the turn of the millennium, drawing on the Italian tradition and striking a metaphysical note. He also created animations based on his meditative paintings, which use elements of classical architecture and garden design. "The images of the contemplative, conceptual animations are created on canvas and prints, where the presence of stillness and silence is conveyed not only by harmonious proportions and tonal transitions of soothing colours but also by the apparition-like glow of the highlights that almost split the painting plane, suggesting a supernatural light" - wrote art historian János Schneller about the artist's meditative approach. Kondor, born in Budapest, graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2000 with a degree in Graphic Arts. At that time, his artistic perspective was characterised by the traditional oil painting method and a search for classical themes. During his time at the university, he turned against the conceptual practice that dominated the intellectual climate of the 1990s and, as a rebellious gesture, painted plein air landscapes of the Élesd countryside in Transylvania as a member of the Sensaria Group, a group of traditionalist painting students. Although the group's attitude towards classical painting resonated among the realist tendencies that were gaining ground in the early 2000s, Kondor was isolated from the group because of his essentially philosophical, contemplative character. He was strongly influenced by Italy, the home of classical architecture and traditional garden design. His early paintings depicted unpopulated, meditative Italian castle gardens with reflecting surfaces of water, silent colonnades and classical sculptures. Subsequently, his canvases depicted architectural fragments from Budapest. Smudges and tactile surfaces accompanied his pictorial character's realistic, austere perspective. By the end of the decade, he found his own distinctive, individual iconography: gateways, staircases, marble halls and libraries, lifted from classical architecture and given symbolic power. Kondor's historical and philosophical worldview suggests that the proportions of the gates, windows and spaces correspond to the "majesty of the cosmos". The pictorial voids, highlighted by graphic white stripes or negative forms, indicate the proximity of mystery in this Arcadian, introspective world. Since 2013, Kondor has also been making meditative animated films from the "raw material" of his paintings, besides the oil paintings that he is constantly creating. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Attila KONDOR
The Light of Forms II.

Attila KONDOR

The Light of Forms II.

Year(s)
2009
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
180x140 cm
Artist's introduction

Attila Kondor represents a figurative derivation of oil painting that emerged after the turn of the millennium, drawing on the Italian tradition and striking a metaphysical note. He also created animations based on his meditative paintings, which use elements of classical architecture and garden design. "The images of the contemplative, conceptual animations are created on canvas and prints, where the presence of stillness and silence is conveyed not only by harmonious proportions and tonal transitions of soothing colours but also by the apparition-like glow of the highlights that almost split the painting plane, suggesting a supernatural light" - wrote art historian János Schneller about the artist's meditative approach. Kondor, born in Budapest, graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2000 with a degree in Graphic Arts. At that time, his artistic perspective was characterised by the traditional oil painting method and a search for classical themes. During his time at the university, he turned against the conceptual practice that dominated the intellectual climate of the 1990s and, as a rebellious gesture, painted plein air landscapes of the Élesd countryside in Transylvania as a member of the Sensaria Group, a group of traditionalist painting students. Although the group's attitude towards classical painting resonated among the realist tendencies that were gaining ground in the early 2000s, Kondor was isolated from the group because of his essentially philosophical, contemplative character. He was strongly influenced by Italy, the home of classical architecture and traditional garden design. His early paintings depicted unpopulated, meditative Italian castle gardens with reflecting surfaces of water, silent colonnades and classical sculptures. Subsequently, his canvases depicted architectural fragments from Budapest. Smudges and tactile surfaces accompanied his pictorial character's realistic, austere perspective. By the end of the decade, he found his own distinctive, individual iconography: gateways, staircases, marble halls and libraries, lifted from classical architecture and given symbolic power. Kondor's historical and philosophical worldview suggests that the proportions of the gates, windows and spaces correspond to the "majesty of the cosmos". The pictorial voids, highlighted by graphic white stripes or negative forms, indicate the proximity of mystery in this Arcadian, introspective world. Since 2013, Kondor has also been making meditative animated films from the "raw material" of his paintings, besides the oil paintings that he is constantly creating. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Tamás KONOK
The Structure of Train of Thought

Tamás KONOK

The Structure of Train of Thought

Year(s)
2004
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
160x200 cm
Artist's introduction

Tamás Konok studied painting at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts between 1948 and 1953 as a student of Aurél Bernáth. He emigrated to Paris in 1959. He turned away from naturalistic painting and developed his lyrical geometric style from the 1970s, in which sensitive linear drawing plays a critical role. Galerie Lambert organised his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1960. From the 1970s, Konok and his wife, the sculptor Katalin Hetey lived in Paris and Zurich. Konok worked in close contact with Schlégl Gallery in Zurich and regularly exhibited in French, Swiss, Dutch and Swedish galleries and museums. He returned to Hungary with a solo exhibition in 1980. Since the 1990s, he has been staying and working in Budapest on a regular basis. His work attempted to capture transcendental, timeless realms of meaning: he sought to depict the forces, energies, and relations that drive the universe with his concrete, geometric shapes and linear systems. His musical studies had a profound influence on his art; thus, in his work, he paid attention to the perfect articulation of sound, rhythm, and line navigation. In addition to his "Apollonian" notion of art, which shaped his precise compositions and architectonic pictorial structures, he was also committed to renewing his painting practice during his seven-decade career. The central element of his painterly experiments – based on small-scale collages – could be grasped in the forever evolving pictorial structures, motifs and the dynamic changes in the artist's palette. Krisztina Szipőcs

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Aladár ALMÁSY
The observer of the Greek peeled amphora's hypnosis

Aladár ALMÁSY

The observer of the Greek peeled amphora's hypnosis

Year(s)
2019
Technique
watercolour and ink on paper
Size
65x94,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Aladár Almásy is one of the most distinctive figures of the generation of graphic artists of the 1970s, whose graphic universe is defined by mystical-psychological symbolism, romantic sensibility and linguistic humour. Noémi Szabó, art historian, described his distinctive character vividly: "He is invested in a romantic-surrealist eclecticism, constructing a dream world far from the current age, full of pretension, but at the same time honesty as well." Born in Debrecen, Almásy completed his graphic studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1976. In the 1970s, together with Imre Szemethy, he was the successor of the generation of graphic artists that had defined the previous decade and had established an important tendency and which was marked by the names of Béla Kondor, Arnold Gross, Csaba Rékassy and Ádám Würtz. His first works were etchings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, and pen and ink drawings. His aesthetic world was characterised by jagged, fragmented draughtsmanship, dreamlike, surreal visions and playful linguistic humour. His numerous national solo exhibitions were accompanied by several international exhibitions. In his scandalous statement of 1978, he described himself as an individualistic dreamer: "My existence is a unique visual world of forms, determined by inner emotions, a pure inexhaustible world view, never committed to any fix direction." He gradually drifted towards painting in the 1980s, combining cloud-like patches of colour with his broken line work. His art, which looked to the past, evoked the poetic mood of turn-of-the-century symbolism, from the metaphorical enigma of Baudelaire to the nostalgic dreamscapes of Lajos Gulácsy. The heroes of his poetic narratives are often drawn from cultural history (István Széchenyi, Martin Luther, Zarathustra, etc.). Around the turn of the millennium, the medium of bronze sculpture also appeared in his œuvre, which embraces a wide range of techniques. His successful start to his career was accompanied by numerous state awards in the 1970s and 1980s. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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István GELLÉR B.
Graz Version

István GELLÉR B.

Graz Version

Year(s)
1976
Technique
tempera on paper
Size
70x57 cm
Artist's introduction

The geometric painting practice of B. István Gellér is unique among the aspirations of the Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde. The emblematic structures of his 1970s artworks, which were constructed with softer lines, but edited with symmetrical rigour, are typical domestic examples of Pop art-influenced Signal Painting. One of the most critical issues of progressive Hungarian painting in the 1960s was the reconciliation of global trends and local traditions, which notion defined the artistic practice of Gellér as well. His passion for drawing led him as a child to Ferenc Martyn, followed by the free school of Ferenc Lantos. His trip to Western Europe deeply inspired him in the late 1960s. During his visit to London, he got acquainted with the work of Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. Combining his recent international experiences with the local artistic traditions of Pécs, he developed an organic and symbolic geometric language. He sought to create an internationally relevant, locally inspired, but at the same time personally motivated artistic voice. His recurring motifs include the almost anthropomorphic, three-lobed, softened triangle, the "embracing" shapes, and the box-like space enhanced with a sense of depth utilising perspective. He endowed his geometric shapes – which filled the entire surface – with personal meaning far removed from the essence of Geometric Abstraction. He was less interested in theoretical problems than in the lyrical transformation of symbols. He worked on creating a "geometry of personal credibility" based on individual truths. Fanni Magyar

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István GELLÉR B.
The One living in the Fruit

István GELLÉR B.

The One living in the Fruit

Year(s)
1976
Technique
tempera on paper
Size
51x35,5 cm
Artist's introduction

The geometric painting practice of B. István Gellér is unique among the aspirations of the Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde. The emblematic structures of his 1970s artworks, which were constructed with softer lines, but edited with symmetrical rigour, are typical domestic examples of Pop art-influenced Signal Painting. One of the most critical issues of progressive Hungarian painting in the 1960s was the reconciliation of global trends and local traditions, which notion defined the artistic practice of Gellér as well. His passion for drawing led him as a child to Ferenc Martyn, followed by the free school of Ferenc Lantos. His trip to Western Europe deeply inspired him in the late 1960s. During his visit to London, he got acquainted with the work of Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. Combining his recent international experiences with the local artistic traditions of Pécs, he developed an organic and symbolic geometric language. He sought to create an internationally relevant, locally inspired, but at the same time personally motivated artistic voice. His recurring motifs include the almost anthropomorphic, three-lobed, softened triangle, the "embracing" shapes, and the box-like space enhanced with a sense of depth utilising perspective. He endowed his geometric shapes – which filled the entire surface – with personal meaning far removed from the essence of Geometric Abstraction. He was less interested in theoretical problems than in the lyrical transformation of symbols. He worked on creating a "geometry of personal credibility" based on individual truths. Fanni Magyar

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István GELLÉR B.
The Star of Bethlehem

István GELLÉR B.

The Star of Bethlehem

Year(s)
1972
Technique
tempera and colour pencil on paper
Size
55x68 cm
Artist's introduction

The geometric painting practice of B. István Gellér is unique among the aspirations of the Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde. The emblematic structures of his 1970s artworks, which were constructed with softer lines, but edited with symmetrical rigour, are typical domestic examples of Pop art-influenced Signal Painting. One of the most critical issues of progressive Hungarian painting in the 1960s was the reconciliation of global trends and local traditions, which notion defined the artistic practice of Gellér as well. His passion for drawing led him as a child to Ferenc Martyn, followed by the free school of Ferenc Lantos. His trip to Western Europe deeply inspired him in the late 1960s. During his visit to London, he got acquainted with the work of Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. Combining his recent international experiences with the local artistic traditions of Pécs, he developed an organic and symbolic geometric language. He sought to create an internationally relevant, locally inspired, but at the same time personally motivated artistic voice. His recurring motifs include the almost anthropomorphic, three-lobed, softened triangle, the "embracing" shapes, and the box-like space enhanced with a sense of depth utilising perspective. He endowed his geometric shapes – which filled the entire surface – with personal meaning far removed from the essence of Geometric Abstraction. He was less interested in theoretical problems than in the lyrical transformation of symbols. He worked on creating a "geometry of personal credibility" based on individual truths. Fanni Magyar

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Aladár ALMÁSY
Leaving the hand cover at Horatius

Aladár ALMÁSY

Leaving the hand cover at Horatius

Year(s)
2017
Technique
watercolour and ink on paper
Size
55x74,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Aladár Almásy is one of the most distinctive figures of the generation of graphic artists of the 1970s, whose graphic universe is defined by mystical-psychological symbolism, romantic sensibility and linguistic humour. Noémi Szabó, art historian, described his distinctive character vividly: "He is invested in a romantic-surrealist eclecticism, constructing a dream world far from the current age, full of pretension, but at the same time honesty as well." Born in Debrecen, Almásy completed his graphic studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1976. In the 1970s, together with Imre Szemethy, he was the successor of the generation of graphic artists that had defined the previous decade and had established an important tendency and which was marked by the names of Béla Kondor, Arnold Gross, Csaba Rékassy and Ádám Würtz. His first works were etchings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, and pen and ink drawings. His aesthetic world was characterised by jagged, fragmented draughtsmanship, dreamlike, surreal visions and playful linguistic humour. His numerous national solo exhibitions were accompanied by several international exhibitions. In his scandalous statement of 1978, he described himself as an individualistic dreamer: "My existence is a unique visual world of forms, determined by inner emotions, a pure inexhaustible world view, never committed to any fix direction." He gradually drifted towards painting in the 1980s, combining cloud-like patches of colour with his broken line work. His art, which looked to the past, evoked the poetic mood of turn-of-the-century symbolism, from the metaphorical enigma of Baudelaire to the nostalgic dreamscapes of Lajos Gulácsy. The heroes of his poetic narratives are often drawn from cultural history (István Széchenyi, Martin Luther, Zarathustra, etc.). Around the turn of the millennium, the medium of bronze sculpture also appeared in his œuvre, which embraces a wide range of techniques. His successful start to his career was accompanied by numerous state awards in the 1970s and 1980s. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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István GELLÉR B.
The Chinese Gate

István GELLÉR B.

The Chinese Gate

Year(s)
1972
Technique
tempera on paper
Size
65x48,2 cm
Artist's introduction

The geometric painting practice of B. István Gellér is unique among the aspirations of the Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde. The emblematic structures of his 1970s artworks, which were constructed with softer lines, but edited with symmetrical rigour, are typical domestic examples of Pop art-influenced Signal Painting. One of the most critical issues of progressive Hungarian painting in the 1960s was the reconciliation of global trends and local traditions, which notion defined the artistic practice of Gellér as well. His passion for drawing led him as a child to Ferenc Martyn, followed by the free school of Ferenc Lantos. His trip to Western Europe deeply inspired him in the late 1960s. During his visit to London, he got acquainted with the work of Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. Combining his recent international experiences with the local artistic traditions of Pécs, he developed an organic and symbolic geometric language. He sought to create an internationally relevant, locally inspired, but at the same time personally motivated artistic voice. His recurring motifs include the almost anthropomorphic, three-lobed, softened triangle, the "embracing" shapes, and the box-like space enhanced with a sense of depth utilising perspective. He endowed his geometric shapes – which filled the entire surface – with personal meaning far removed from the essence of Geometric Abstraction. He was less interested in theoretical problems than in the lyrical transformation of symbols. He worked on creating a "geometry of personal credibility" based on individual truths. Fanni Magyar

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Vera MOLNÁR
Squaring the Circle

Vera MOLNÁR

Squaring the Circle

Year(s)
1962-1964
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
110x110 cm
Artist's introduction

Living in France since 1947, Vera Molnar is one of the pioneers of Computer art. In 1959, she began to make combinatory images and model mathematical regularities using a method she called “machine imaginaire”. In 1968, she got the opportunity to work with a real computer. Molnar then began to use computer technologies as a generative tool to create paintings and graphic art, which broadened the frontiers of science and art. In her computer graphics, each image primarily refers to the unlimited possibilities of variation inherent to the underlying program. In creating these computer-generated drawings and graphics, the program creates specific geometric shapes and formations that can combine in a precalculated or unexpected way. The serial aspect of this method is also essential, as it allows the artist to transform the shapes systematically, as Molnar did with the line. Molnar is interested in the systematically produced random quality and the study of the infinite transformations of geometric shapes such as the square or the trapezoid. The computer’s algorithmic randomness plays a crucial role in her work. Order and disorder, structure and freedom provide important notions to understand her artistic practice further. Molnar said the following about her work, “I was not interested in anything but the simplest form, the square; what happens with it if there is order and what if there is none”. Zsófia Rátkai

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Aladár ALMÁSY
Horatius presenting the tradition of the shattered rider to Széchenyi

Aladár ALMÁSY

Horatius presenting the tradition of the shattered rider to Széchenyi

Year(s)
2017
Technique
watercolour and ink on paper
Size
55x74,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Aladár Almásy is one of the most distinctive figures of the generation of graphic artists of the 1970s, whose graphic universe is defined by mystical-psychological symbolism, romantic sensibility and linguistic humour. Noémi Szabó, art historian, described his distinctive character vividly: "He is invested in a romantic-surrealist eclecticism, constructing a dream world far from the current age, full of pretension, but at the same time honesty as well." Born in Debrecen, Almásy completed his graphic studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1976. In the 1970s, together with Imre Szemethy, he was the successor of the generation of graphic artists that had defined the previous decade and had established an important tendency and which was marked by the names of Béla Kondor, Arnold Gross, Csaba Rékassy and Ádám Würtz. His first works were etchings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, and pen and ink drawings. His aesthetic world was characterised by jagged, fragmented draughtsmanship, dreamlike, surreal visions and playful linguistic humour. His numerous national solo exhibitions were accompanied by several international exhibitions. In his scandalous statement of 1978, he described himself as an individualistic dreamer: "My existence is a unique visual world of forms, determined by inner emotions, a pure inexhaustible world view, never committed to any fix direction." He gradually drifted towards painting in the 1980s, combining cloud-like patches of colour with his broken line work. His art, which looked to the past, evoked the poetic mood of turn-of-the-century symbolism, from the metaphorical enigma of Baudelaire to the nostalgic dreamscapes of Lajos Gulácsy. The heroes of his poetic narratives are often drawn from cultural history (István Széchenyi, Martin Luther, Zarathustra, etc.). Around the turn of the millennium, the medium of bronze sculpture also appeared in his œuvre, which embraces a wide range of techniques. His successful start to his career was accompanied by numerous state awards in the 1970s and 1980s. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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István GELLÉR B.
Queen of Spades

István GELLÉR B.

Queen of Spades

Year(s)
1972
Technique
tempera on paper
Size
54x40 cm
Artist's introduction

The geometric painting practice of B. István Gellér is unique among the aspirations of the Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde. The emblematic structures of his 1970s artworks, which were constructed with softer lines, but edited with symmetrical rigour, are typical domestic examples of Pop art-influenced Signal Painting. One of the most critical issues of progressive Hungarian painting in the 1960s was the reconciliation of global trends and local traditions, which notion defined the artistic practice of Gellér as well. His passion for drawing led him as a child to Ferenc Martyn, followed by the free school of Ferenc Lantos. His trip to Western Europe deeply inspired him in the late 1960s. During his visit to London, he got acquainted with the work of Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. Combining his recent international experiences with the local artistic traditions of Pécs, he developed an organic and symbolic geometric language. He sought to create an internationally relevant, locally inspired, but at the same time personally motivated artistic voice. His recurring motifs include the almost anthropomorphic, three-lobed, softened triangle, the "embracing" shapes, and the box-like space enhanced with a sense of depth utilising perspective. He endowed his geometric shapes – which filled the entire surface – with personal meaning far removed from the essence of Geometric Abstraction. He was less interested in theoretical problems than in the lyrical transformation of symbols. He worked on creating a "geometry of personal credibility" based on individual truths. Fanni Magyar

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Aladár ALMÁSY
Fragonard the Spider Washer

Aladár ALMÁSY

Fragonard the Spider Washer

Year(s)
2011
Technique
oil and egg tempera on canvas
Size
120x150 cm
Artist's introduction

Aladár Almásy is one of the most distinctive figures of the generation of graphic artists of the 1970s, whose graphic universe is defined by mystical-psychological symbolism, romantic sensibility and linguistic humour. Noémi Szabó, art historian, described his distinctive character vividly: "He is invested in a romantic-surrealist eclecticism, constructing a dream world far from the current age, full of pretension, but at the same time honesty as well." Born in Debrecen, Almásy completed his graphic studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1976. In the 1970s, together with Imre Szemethy, he was the successor of the generation of graphic artists that had defined the previous decade and had established an important tendency and which was marked by the names of Béla Kondor, Arnold Gross, Csaba Rékassy and Ádám Würtz. His first works were etchings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, and pen and ink drawings. His aesthetic world was characterised by jagged, fragmented draughtsmanship, dreamlike, surreal visions and playful linguistic humour. His numerous national solo exhibitions were accompanied by several international exhibitions. In his scandalous statement of 1978, he described himself as an individualistic dreamer: "My existence is a unique visual world of forms, determined by inner emotions, a pure inexhaustible world view, never committed to any fix direction." He gradually drifted towards painting in the 1980s, combining cloud-like patches of colour with his broken line work. His art, which looked to the past, evoked the poetic mood of turn-of-the-century symbolism, from the metaphorical enigma of Baudelaire to the nostalgic dreamscapes of Lajos Gulácsy. The heroes of his poetic narratives are often drawn from cultural history (István Széchenyi, Martin Luther, Zarathustra, etc.). Around the turn of the millennium, the medium of bronze sculpture also appeared in his œuvre, which embraces a wide range of techniques. His successful start to his career was accompanied by numerous state awards in the 1970s and 1980s. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Judit REIGL
The Experience of Weightlessness

Judit REIGL

The Experience of Weightlessness

Year(s)
1966
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
100x82,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Judit Reigl is one of the most well-known artists emigrating from Hungary at the end of the 1940s due to political reasons, similarly to Simon Hantaï and Vera Molnár. She became a successful artist in France and contributed a lot to the development of international abstraction with her experiments. Reigl graduated at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts, where she had the opportunity to study realistic style from her master, István Szőnyi. After the political turn she refused to follow the obligatory requirements of Socialist Realism, and after eight attempts she could finally emigrate and settle down in Paris in 1950. In her early career she was focusing on the surrealist perspective, which is apparent in her works made at the time. She joined the surrealists – the foreword of her first catalogue was written by André Breton. Her artistic development was heading towards abstract expressionism, dominating the rest of her career. Her works in the 1950s were based on wide paint brush gestures, using dark colours on light background through cyclic and explosive systems of lines. Later, the aesthetic quality of the various paint layers created a new series titled Guano. The silhouette of the human body became a returning pattern in the second half of her career, symbolising the dichotomy of universal and human on her large-scale canvases (Homme series). She was an experimenting artist; from the 1970s she created paintings by letting different paint materials interacting in organic, chemical ways. Next to painting, during the last decade of her career, crayon and pencil drawings played an important role, presenting art historical references as well as universal symbols by delicate and virtuoso drawing lines. Reigl’s art has been recognized by art history since the 1980s with growing attention and admiration. Her art works can be found in most of the world’s most significant museums as well as in Hungary in the Hungarian National Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Ludwig Museum. Zsolt Petrányi

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Dia PINTÉR
Holy Swap And The Treasure

Dia PINTÉR

Holy Swap And The Treasure

Year(s)
2020
Technique
serpentine glued on paper, paper tape
Size
115x149 cm
Artist's introduction

Inerasable memory is a crucial notion in the case of Dia Pintér's work. Shards of memory, image fragments and segments of space appear in her images. These cannot be depicted or decoded directly. Painting is, of course, always a zone where depiction takes place – here, however, it is not a mathematical process but rather a multidimensional one. The evocative nature of the utilised motifs, the emotive power of colours, the unity of forms, the elaboration of complex spatial constellations, and the connections stemming from associative patterns between words and work processes play a central role in her work. The primary formal unit of representation in Pintér's case is the stripe or the paper band. These stripes fall in a rain-like fashion, delineating shapes or gathering in puddles mirroring various motifs. Pintér searches for transition zones leading to past-tense perceptions. She is not looking for one given method or a magic spell through which this transition might occur: she seems to be seeking the direction with closed eyes. As such, there is no method in how she constructs her artworks. In a world where everything seems to lend itself to verbalisation and interpretation, the painter escapes forwards, exiting this foreseeable and calculable realm. She does not surrender to emotional painting: her work cannot be interpreted as lyrical. The viewer follows the painter's pictorial steps, looking for reference points and larger structures, discarding these soon. It is almost as if she could establish a state of levitation and grasp the gaze in this inner space. A space that does not seem homely and from which all memories escape. The viewers look back into the past through this space; their nostalgia is awakened only to disintegrate. József Mélyi

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Bea KUSOVSZKY
Layers of the Rainbow IV.

Bea KUSOVSZKY

Layers of the Rainbow IV.

Year(s)
2020
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
100x80 cm
Artist's introduction

The painter Bea Kusovszky lives and works in Budapest. She holds a diploma in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and studied painting and animation at the Universitat de València. She has participated in many solo and group shows and is currently represented by VILTIN Gallery in Hungary. In her artistic practice, Bea Kusovszky has been invested in analysing the pictorial qualities and optical parameters of various epochs of art history. This interest has led her from a strong figural focus towards the deconstruction and reorganising of multiple histories of abstraction, all the while upholding a technical perfectionism and dedication towards questioning the ontology of the image. Kusovszky, through paintings organised into concise series, has been investigating various visual phenomena on the border of art, science and popular imagery: in some cases, she references the Newtonian colour spectrum and the aesthetic of colourful greys. In other instances, she recontextualises the iconic Ben-Day dot in an Op-art setting, deploying elaborate framing structures that reimagine the surface as a digital screen or a switchboard. This results in nostalgic, technoutopian visions that direct the viewers' attention to the core of the painting's identity. Her work is also influenced by the findings of important predecessors such as Roy Lichtenstein, Bridget Riley, or from the Hungarian art scene painters such as Tamás Hencze, István Nádler or József Bullás. Her referential, relationist thinking opens up various interpretations ranging from Walter Benjamin's notion of the image's "aura" to the intertextual meta-structures of postmodernism. As a member of the young generation, she is also influenced by contemporary experiences of digital visuality. However, through her work, Kusovszky distils these impressions into complex, mechanical and handcrafted visual systems that reveal the fundamental units of painting: the material, the support and the image as object. Patrick Tayler

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Bea KUSOVSZKY
Layers of the Rainbow V.

Bea KUSOVSZKY

Layers of the Rainbow V.

Year(s)
2021
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
150x120 cm
Artist's introduction

The painter Bea Kusovszky lives and works in Budapest. She holds a diploma in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and studied painting and animation at the Universitat de València. She has participated in many solo and group shows and is currently represented by VILTIN Gallery in Hungary. In her artistic practice, Bea Kusovszky has been invested in analysing the pictorial qualities and optical parameters of various epochs of art history. This interest has led her from a strong figural focus towards the deconstruction and reorganising of multiple histories of abstraction, all the while upholding a technical perfectionism and dedication towards questioning the ontology of the image. Kusovszky, through paintings organised into concise series, has been investigating various visual phenomena on the border of art, science and popular imagery: in some cases, she references the Newtonian colour spectrum and the aesthetic of colourful greys. In other instances, she recontextualises the iconic Ben-Day dot in an Op-art setting, deploying elaborate framing structures that reimagine the surface as a digital screen or a switchboard. This results in nostalgic, technoutopian visions that direct the viewers' attention to the core of the painting's identity. Her work is also influenced by the findings of important predecessors such as Roy Lichtenstein, Bridget Riley, or from the Hungarian art scene painters such as Tamás Hencze, István Nádler or József Bullás. Her referential, relationist thinking opens up various interpretations ranging from Walter Benjamin's notion of the image's "aura" to the intertextual meta-structures of postmodernism. As a member of the young generation, she is also influenced by contemporary experiences of digital visuality. However, through her work, Kusovszky distils these impressions into complex, mechanical and handcrafted visual systems that reveal the fundamental units of painting: the material, the support and the image as object. Patrick Tayler

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Bea KUSOVSZKY
Layers of the Rainbow VIII.

Bea KUSOVSZKY

Layers of the Rainbow VIII.

Year(s)
2020
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
150x120 cm
Artist's introduction

The painter Bea Kusovszky lives and works in Budapest. She holds a diploma in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and studied painting and animation at the Universitat de València. She has participated in many solo and group shows and is currently represented by VILTIN Gallery in Hungary. In her artistic practice, Bea Kusovszky has been invested in analysing the pictorial qualities and optical parameters of various epochs of art history. This interest has led her from a strong figural focus towards the deconstruction and reorganising of multiple histories of abstraction, all the while upholding a technical perfectionism and dedication towards questioning the ontology of the image. Kusovszky, through paintings organised into concise series, has been investigating various visual phenomena on the border of art, science and popular imagery: in some cases, she references the Newtonian colour spectrum and the aesthetic of colourful greys. In other instances, she recontextualises the iconic Ben-Day dot in an Op-art setting, deploying elaborate framing structures that reimagine the surface as a digital screen or a switchboard. This results in nostalgic, technoutopian visions that direct the viewers' attention to the core of the painting's identity. Her work is also influenced by the findings of important predecessors such as Roy Lichtenstein, Bridget Riley, or from the Hungarian art scene painters such as Tamás Hencze, István Nádler or József Bullás. Her referential, relationist thinking opens up various interpretations ranging from Walter Benjamin's notion of the image's "aura" to the intertextual meta-structures of postmodernism. As a member of the young generation, she is also influenced by contemporary experiences of digital visuality. However, through her work, Kusovszky distils these impressions into complex, mechanical and handcrafted visual systems that reveal the fundamental units of painting: the material, the support and the image as object. Patrick Tayler

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Bea KUSOVSZKY
Layers of the Rainbow X.

Bea KUSOVSZKY

Layers of the Rainbow X.

Year(s)
2020
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
80x100 cm
Artist's introduction

The painter Bea Kusovszky lives and works in Budapest. She holds a diploma in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and studied painting and animation at the Universitat de València. She has participated in many solo and group shows and is currently represented by VILTIN Gallery in Hungary. In her artistic practice, Bea Kusovszky has been invested in analysing the pictorial qualities and optical parameters of various epochs of art history. This interest has led her from a strong figural focus towards the deconstruction and reorganising of multiple histories of abstraction, all the while upholding a technical perfectionism and dedication towards questioning the ontology of the image. Kusovszky, through paintings organised into concise series, has been investigating various visual phenomena on the border of art, science and popular imagery: in some cases, she references the Newtonian colour spectrum and the aesthetic of colourful greys. In other instances, she recontextualises the iconic Ben-Day dot in an Op-art setting, deploying elaborate framing structures that reimagine the surface as a digital screen or a switchboard. This results in nostalgic, technoutopian visions that direct the viewers' attention to the core of the painting's identity. Her work is also influenced by the findings of important predecessors such as Roy Lichtenstein, Bridget Riley, or from the Hungarian art scene painters such as Tamás Hencze, István Nádler or József Bullás. Her referential, relationist thinking opens up various interpretations ranging from Walter Benjamin's notion of the image's "aura" to the intertextual meta-structures of postmodernism. As a member of the young generation, she is also influenced by contemporary experiences of digital visuality. However, through her work, Kusovszky distils these impressions into complex, mechanical and handcrafted visual systems that reveal the fundamental units of painting: the material, the support and the image as object. Patrick Tayler

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Bea KUSOVSZKY
Layers of the Rainbow XI.

Bea KUSOVSZKY

Layers of the Rainbow XI.

Year(s)
2021
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
120x100 cm
Artist's introduction

The painter Bea Kusovszky lives and works in Budapest. She holds a diploma in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and studied painting and animation at the Universitat de València. She has participated in many solo and group shows and is currently represented by VILTIN Gallery in Hungary. In her artistic practice, Bea Kusovszky has been invested in analysing the pictorial qualities and optical parameters of various epochs of art history. This interest has led her from a strong figural focus towards the deconstruction and reorganising of multiple histories of abstraction, all the while upholding a technical perfectionism and dedication towards questioning the ontology of the image. Kusovszky, through paintings organised into concise series, has been investigating various visual phenomena on the border of art, science and popular imagery: in some cases, she references the Newtonian colour spectrum and the aesthetic of colourful greys. In other instances, she recontextualises the iconic Ben-Day dot in an Op-art setting, deploying elaborate framing structures that reimagine the surface as a digital screen or a switchboard. This results in nostalgic, technoutopian visions that direct the viewers' attention to the core of the painting's identity. Her work is also influenced by the findings of important predecessors such as Roy Lichtenstein, Bridget Riley, or from the Hungarian art scene painters such as Tamás Hencze, István Nádler or József Bullás. Her referential, relationist thinking opens up various interpretations ranging from Walter Benjamin's notion of the image's "aura" to the intertextual meta-structures of postmodernism. As a member of the young generation, she is also influenced by contemporary experiences of digital visuality. However, through her work, Kusovszky distils these impressions into complex, mechanical and handcrafted visual systems that reveal the fundamental units of painting: the material, the support and the image as object. Patrick Tayler

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Bea KUSOVSZKY
Layers of the Rainbow XII.

Bea KUSOVSZKY

Layers of the Rainbow XII.

Year(s)
2021
Technique
acrylic and acrylic spray paint on canvas
Size
150x120 cm
Artist's introduction

The painter Bea Kusovszky lives and works in Budapest. She holds a diploma in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and studied painting and animation at the Universitat de València. She has participated in many solo and group shows and is currently represented by VILTIN Gallery in Hungary. In her artistic practice, Bea Kusovszky has been invested in analysing the pictorial qualities and optical parameters of various epochs of art history. This interest has led her from a strong figural focus towards the deconstruction and reorganising of multiple histories of abstraction, all the while upholding a technical perfectionism and dedication towards questioning the ontology of the image. Kusovszky, through paintings organised into concise series, has been investigating various visual phenomena on the border of art, science and popular imagery: in some cases, she references the Newtonian colour spectrum and the aesthetic of colourful greys. In other instances, she recontextualises the iconic Ben-Day dot in an Op-art setting, deploying elaborate framing structures that reimagine the surface as a digital screen or a switchboard. This results in nostalgic, technoutopian visions that direct the viewers' attention to the core of the painting's identity. Her work is also influenced by the findings of important predecessors such as Roy Lichtenstein, Bridget Riley, or from the Hungarian art scene painters such as Tamás Hencze, István Nádler or József Bullás. Her referential, relationist thinking opens up various interpretations ranging from Walter Benjamin's notion of the image's "aura" to the intertextual meta-structures of postmodernism. As a member of the young generation, she is also influenced by contemporary experiences of digital visuality. However, through her work, Kusovszky distils these impressions into complex, mechanical and handcrafted visual systems that reveal the fundamental units of painting: the material, the support and the image as object. Patrick Tayler

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Bea KUSOVSZKY
Layers of the Rainbow XIII.

Bea KUSOVSZKY

Layers of the Rainbow XIII.

Year(s)
2021
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
150x121 cm
Artist's introduction

The painter Bea Kusovszky lives and works in Budapest. She holds a diploma in painting from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and studied painting and animation at the Universitat de València. She has participated in many solo and group shows and is currently represented by VILTIN Gallery in Hungary. In her artistic practice, Bea Kusovszky has been invested in analysing the pictorial qualities and optical parameters of various epochs of art history. This interest has led her from a strong figural focus towards the deconstruction and reorganising of multiple histories of abstraction, all the while upholding a technical perfectionism and dedication towards questioning the ontology of the image. Kusovszky, through paintings organised into concise series, has been investigating various visual phenomena on the border of art, science and popular imagery: in some cases, she references the Newtonian colour spectrum and the aesthetic of colourful greys. In other instances, she recontextualises the iconic Ben-Day dot in an Op-art setting, deploying elaborate framing structures that reimagine the surface as a digital screen or a switchboard. This results in nostalgic, technoutopian visions that direct the viewers' attention to the core of the painting's identity. Her work is also influenced by the findings of important predecessors such as Roy Lichtenstein, Bridget Riley, or from the Hungarian art scene painters such as Tamás Hencze, István Nádler or József Bullás. Her referential, relationist thinking opens up various interpretations ranging from Walter Benjamin's notion of the image's "aura" to the intertextual meta-structures of postmodernism. As a member of the young generation, she is also influenced by contemporary experiences of digital visuality. However, through her work, Kusovszky distils these impressions into complex, mechanical and handcrafted visual systems that reveal the fundamental units of painting: the material, the support and the image as object. Patrick Tayler

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Ferenc LANTOS
Sound of Fields

Ferenc LANTOS

Sound of Fields

Year(s)
1991
Technique
paper, ink, aquarelle
Size
45,5x45,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Ferenc Lantos studied under Ferenc Martyn's supervision in Pécs and at the College of Fine Arts in Budapest. He considered art to be a form of cognition. His path from abstraction through geometric forms lead to a systematic pictorial thinking. As an educator, he ventured to influence attitudes: he built a new foundation for the relationship between the fine arts and the other art forms. Lantos developed his activities in relation to architecture, literature, music and the modern sciences. The interactions between the two foundational elements of his pictorial universe – the square and the circle – were based on mathematical operations. He relied on the enlargement and reduction of these, their intersection possibilities, their potential interferences to establish a system of variations based on emerging forms. He also founded his public art program on this principle. He hypothesised that since variation always expresses order and is infinite, due to the inherent colouristic possibilities, it can be considered as a model of intellectual cognition and a visual game – and is thus capable of mobilising society (exhibition titled Nature-Vision-Creation, 1972–75). His systems of elements – which was utilised within interior design, building decoration and outdoor projects – could be connected to the era's dynamically developing visual culture. The successful mural enamel project at the Bonyhád Enamel Factory ran for years, during which his colleagues and students also participated. Especially in Pécs and the Transdanubia region, the exterior and interior walls of many public buildings and factories were enlivened during the 1970s by this series of variations. Lantos was a winner of the Kossuth Prize and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. A permanent exhibition of his selected works is on display in Pécs. Katalin Keserü

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Aladár ALMÁSY
The little Homer who no longer holds on to the broken spade at the mushroom

Aladár ALMÁSY

The little Homer who no longer holds on to the broken spade at the mushroom

Year(s)
2017
Technique
pastel, watercolour and ink on paper
Size
56,5x75,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Aladár Almásy is one of the most distinctive figures of the generation of graphic artists of the 1970s, whose graphic universe is defined by mystical-psychological symbolism, romantic sensibility and linguistic humour. Noémi Szabó, art historian, described his distinctive character vividly: "He is invested in a romantic-surrealist eclecticism, constructing a dream world far from the current age, full of pretension, but at the same time honesty as well." Born in Debrecen, Almásy completed his graphic studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1976. In the 1970s, together with Imre Szemethy, he was the successor of the generation of graphic artists that had defined the previous decade and had established an important tendency and which was marked by the names of Béla Kondor, Arnold Gross, Csaba Rékassy and Ádám Würtz. His first works were etchings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, and pen and ink drawings. His aesthetic world was characterised by jagged, fragmented draughtsmanship, dreamlike, surreal visions and playful linguistic humour. His numerous national solo exhibitions were accompanied by several international exhibitions. In his scandalous statement of 1978, he described himself as an individualistic dreamer: "My existence is a unique visual world of forms, determined by inner emotions, a pure inexhaustible world view, never committed to any fix direction." He gradually drifted towards painting in the 1980s, combining cloud-like patches of colour with his broken line work. His art, which looked to the past, evoked the poetic mood of turn-of-the-century symbolism, from the metaphorical enigma of Baudelaire to the nostalgic dreamscapes of Lajos Gulácsy. The heroes of his poetic narratives are often drawn from cultural history (István Széchenyi, Martin Luther, Zarathustra, etc.). Around the turn of the millennium, the medium of bronze sculpture also appeared in his œuvre, which embraces a wide range of techniques. His successful start to his career was accompanied by numerous state awards in the 1970s and 1980s. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Attila KONDOR
The City as Landscape

Attila KONDOR

The City as Landscape

Year(s)
2006
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
60x180 cm
Artist's introduction

Attila Kondor represents a figurative derivation of oil painting that emerged after the turn of the millennium, drawing on the Italian tradition and striking a metaphysical note. He also created animations based on his meditative paintings, which use elements of classical architecture and garden design. "The images of the contemplative, conceptual animations are created on canvas and prints, where the presence of stillness and silence is conveyed not only by harmonious proportions and tonal transitions of soothing colours but also by the apparition-like glow of the highlights that almost split the painting plane, suggesting a supernatural light" - wrote art historian János Schneller about the artist's meditative approach. Kondor, born in Budapest, graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2000 with a degree in Graphic Arts. At that time, his artistic perspective was characterised by the traditional oil painting method and a search for classical themes. During his time at the university, he turned against the conceptual practice that dominated the intellectual climate of the 1990s and, as a rebellious gesture, painted plein air landscapes of the Élesd countryside in Transylvania as a member of the Sensaria Group, a group of traditionalist painting students. Although the group's attitude towards classical painting resonated among the realist tendencies that were gaining ground in the early 2000s, Kondor was isolated from the group because of his essentially philosophical, contemplative character. He was strongly influenced by Italy, the home of classical architecture and traditional garden design. His early paintings depicted unpopulated, meditative Italian castle gardens with reflecting surfaces of water, silent colonnades and classical sculptures. Subsequently, his canvases depicted architectural fragments from Budapest. Smudges and tactile surfaces accompanied his pictorial character's realistic, austere perspective. By the end of the decade, he found his own distinctive, individual iconography: gateways, staircases, marble halls and libraries, lifted from classical architecture and given symbolic power. Kondor's historical and philosophical worldview suggests that the proportions of the gates, windows and spaces correspond to the "majesty of the cosmos". The pictorial voids, highlighted by graphic white stripes or negative forms, indicate the proximity of mystery in this Arcadian, introspective world. Since 2013, Kondor has also been making meditative animated films from the "raw material" of his paintings, besides the oil paintings that he is constantly creating. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Aladár ALMÁSY
The plane of the Albanian bird, who arranged a trial at my old road, is my only love. It dreams about the swans of Venus. Horatius 4th book.

Aladár ALMÁSY

The plane of the Albanian bird, who arranged a trial at my old road, is my only love. It dreams about the swans of Venus. Horatius 4th book.

Year(s)
2019
Technique
watercolour and ink on paper
Size
65x91 cm
Artist's introduction

Aladár Almásy is one of the most distinctive figures of the generation of graphic artists of the 1970s, whose graphic universe is defined by mystical-psychological symbolism, romantic sensibility and linguistic humour. Noémi Szabó, art historian, described his distinctive character vividly: "He is invested in a romantic-surrealist eclecticism, constructing a dream world far from the current age, full of pretension, but at the same time honesty as well." Born in Debrecen, Almásy completed his graphic studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1976. In the 1970s, together with Imre Szemethy, he was the successor of the generation of graphic artists that had defined the previous decade and had established an important tendency and which was marked by the names of Béla Kondor, Arnold Gross, Csaba Rékassy and Ádám Würtz. His first works were etchings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, and pen and ink drawings. His aesthetic world was characterised by jagged, fragmented draughtsmanship, dreamlike, surreal visions and playful linguistic humour. His numerous national solo exhibitions were accompanied by several international exhibitions. In his scandalous statement of 1978, he described himself as an individualistic dreamer: "My existence is a unique visual world of forms, determined by inner emotions, a pure inexhaustible world view, never committed to any fix direction." He gradually drifted towards painting in the 1980s, combining cloud-like patches of colour with his broken line work. His art, which looked to the past, evoked the poetic mood of turn-of-the-century symbolism, from the metaphorical enigma of Baudelaire to the nostalgic dreamscapes of Lajos Gulácsy. The heroes of his poetic narratives are often drawn from cultural history (István Széchenyi, Martin Luther, Zarathustra, etc.). Around the turn of the millennium, the medium of bronze sculpture also appeared in his œuvre, which embraces a wide range of techniques. His successful start to his career was accompanied by numerous state awards in the 1970s and 1980s. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Ilona KESERÜ
From the World

Ilona KESERÜ

From the World

Year(s)
1974
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
14 pcs / 90x485 cm together
Artist's introduction

The central axis of Ilona Keserü Ilona's painting practice is provided by her forever-changing spatial and temporal relationship to colours, their research and their various manifestations. In the late 1960s, a definite, thematic tendency emerged in Keserü's work, which she simply called colour research. She wanted to expand her earlier red-orange-pink oriented palette, primarily towards the range of spectral colours. Thus, the range of colours that can be achieved through mixing certain pigments, the analysis of colour resolution, the gradual transition of colours and the upper limits of colour intensity became the subject of many of her works. In the early 1970s, Keserü discovered a wide range of skin tones based on the colour theories of Goethe, which harmoniously counterbalanced the vibrant colours utilised by the artist at the time. From the 2000s onwards, in many of her works, flesh colours appeared as a metaphor of the opposite side of the canvas. The latest stage in her ongoing colour research can be traced back to Keserü's 2001 trip to Rome. Looking at the cleaned surfaces of the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, she was confronted with a new – however, common in Michelangelo's time – painterly-optical phenomenon, called cangiante. In essence, it is not the complementary or harmonic colour pairs that are placed side by side, but colour values ​​that mutually enhance each other's light and brilliance and where the choices are made based on personal colour preferences instead of logical reasoning. Keserü was captivated by these unexpected, resounding chords of colour, "sometimes hair-raising things", purple-blue, orange-green combinations, which then served as inspiration for many of her works. Katalin Aknai

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István GELLÉR B.
Hat of Villahermosa

István GELLÉR B.

Hat of Villahermosa

Year(s)
1972
Technique
tempera on paper
Size
55x42 cm
Artist's introduction

The geometric painting practice of B. István Gellér is unique among the aspirations of the Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde. The emblematic structures of his 1970s artworks, which were constructed with softer lines, but edited with symmetrical rigour, are typical domestic examples of Pop art-influenced Signal Painting. One of the most critical issues of progressive Hungarian painting in the 1960s was the reconciliation of global trends and local traditions, which notion defined the artistic practice of Gellér as well. His passion for drawing led him as a child to Ferenc Martyn, followed by the free school of Ferenc Lantos. His trip to Western Europe deeply inspired him in the late 1960s. During his visit to London, he got acquainted with the work of Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. Combining his recent international experiences with the local artistic traditions of Pécs, he developed an organic and symbolic geometric language. He sought to create an internationally relevant, locally inspired, but at the same time personally motivated artistic voice. His recurring motifs include the almost anthropomorphic, three-lobed, softened triangle, the "embracing" shapes, and the box-like space enhanced with a sense of depth utilising perspective. He endowed his geometric shapes – which filled the entire surface – with personal meaning far removed from the essence of Geometric Abstraction. He was less interested in theoretical problems than in the lyrical transformation of symbols. He worked on creating a "geometry of personal credibility" based on individual truths. Fanni Magyar

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0455-Frey-Krisztian-ABC.jpg
Krisztián FREY
ABC

Krisztián FREY

ABC

Year(s)
circa 1970
Technique
oil, photo, fibreboard, board
Size
160x80 cm
Artist's introduction

Krisztián Frey, as one of the most original figures of the Hungarian non-figurative painting –reborn in the 1960s – formed his own specific way of expression on the domestic scene protected from international influence and suffering from intellectual drowning. As one of the Hungarian representatives of the European post-war abstraction, Frey created his own individual way of expression, combining the lyrical approach of the art informel and the gestural technique of handwriting, similarly to Cy Twombly or Georges Mathieu. Frey started to build his career in the mid-1950s. As a dentist’s son from the countryside, he had to face being stigmatised as a “class enemy”, due to which he was not allowed to attend the College of Fine Arts. As a consequence, neither the ideology of Socialist Realism, nor the conservative tools of scenery painting could prevent him to deploy his aesthetic inner world. He got into close contact with the Zugló Circle, a group of young progressive artists, where his contemporaries were discovering the ways of French abstraction. He staged his first individual exhibition in Hungary in 1967 (in a secluded culture house of Rákosliget), where he presented Rákosliget Pictures, his series consisting of repainted, “whitened” gestures, leaning towards monochrome painting. In the mid-1960s – independently from the Rákosliget series – his individual style became mature: unique abstract expressionism, inspired by Eastern calligraphy and letter-like script writing. He used to refer to his own artistic approach as “gesture painting with varying pace”, which can be described as grey surfaces consisting of multi-layer colours, wide, energetic, expressive brush strokes, handwritten-like, multilingual captures, stenciled letters, vandal wall scripts, zodiac signs, and applicated photographs. Its characteristics were not featured by the elegance of the Western calligraphic abstraction, but much more by the “toilet-door-aesthetics” of art brut and arte povera, utilizing cheap laths, rough scratches and raw gestures. They have been inseparably accompanied by raw erotic desire and invincible writing force. After participating in the Iparterv exhibitions, Frey emigrated to Switzerland in 1970 and lived in Zürich until the end of the Hungarian communism. From the late 1970s, for almost two decades, he was engaged with mathematics, music and informatics. His experiments of experimental computer-drawing ensured a spot for him among the pioneers of international computer art. After the Regime Change in Hungary, he visited his home country again, and parallelly he began to re-develop his earlier scriptural painting. His home crowd then started to admire his unrivalled oeuvre, which is pervaded by the permanent writing force, free expression and the calling of experimentation. Gábor Rieder

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0589-Geller-B.-Istvan-Ablaknal-ulo.jpg
István GELLÉR B.
Sitter at the Window

István GELLÉR B.

Sitter at the Window

Year(s)
1972
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
120x90 cm
Artist's introduction

The geometric painting practice of B. István Gellér is unique among the aspirations of the Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde. The emblematic structures of his 1970s artworks, which were constructed with softer lines, but edited with symmetrical rigour, are typical domestic examples of Pop art-influenced Signal Painting. One of the most critical issues of progressive Hungarian painting in the 1960s was the reconciliation of global trends and local traditions, which notion defined the artistic practice of Gellér as well. His passion for drawing led him as a child to Ferenc Martyn, followed by the free school of Ferenc Lantos. His trip to Western Europe deeply inspired him in the late 1960s. During his visit to London, he got acquainted with the work of Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. Combining his recent international experiences with the local artistic traditions of Pécs, he developed an organic and symbolic geometric language. He sought to create an internationally relevant, locally inspired, but at the same time personally motivated artistic voice. His recurring motifs include the almost anthropomorphic, three-lobed, softened triangle, the "embracing" shapes, and the box-like space enhanced with a sense of depth utilising perspective. He endowed his geometric shapes – which filled the entire surface – with personal meaning far removed from the essence of Geometric Abstraction. He was less interested in theoretical problems than in the lyrical transformation of symbols. He worked on creating a "geometry of personal credibility" based on individual truths. Fanni Magyar

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0542-Konok-Tamas-Accent-rouge.jpg
Tamás KONOK
Accent rouge

Tamás KONOK

Accent rouge

Year(s)
1977
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
97x130 cm
Artist's introduction

Tamás Konok studied painting at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts between 1948 and 1953 as a student of Aurél Bernáth. He emigrated to Paris in 1959. He turned away from naturalistic painting and developed his lyrical geometric style from the 1970s, in which sensitive linear drawing plays a critical role. Galerie Lambert organised his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1960. From the 1970s, Konok and his wife, the sculptor Katalin Hetey lived in Paris and Zurich. Konok worked in close contact with Schlégl Gallery in Zurich and regularly exhibited in French, Swiss, Dutch and Swedish galleries and museums. He returned to Hungary with a solo exhibition in 1980. Since the 1990s, he has been staying and working in Budapest on a regular basis. His work attempted to capture transcendental, timeless realms of meaning: he sought to depict the forces, energies, and relations that drive the universe with his concrete, geometric shapes and linear systems. His musical studies had a profound influence on his art; thus, in his work, he paid attention to the perfect articulation of sound, rhythm, and line navigation. In addition to his "Apollonian" notion of art, which shaped his precise compositions and architectonic pictorial structures, he was also committed to renewing his painting practice during his seven-decade career. The central element of his painterly experiments – based on small-scale collages – could be grasped in the forever evolving pictorial structures, motifs and the dynamic changes in the artist's palette. Krisztina Szipőcs

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1173-Szabo-Menyhert-Ad-Astra-I.jpg
Menyhért SZABÓ
Ad Astra I.

Menyhért SZABÓ

Ad Astra I.

Year(s)
2019
Technique
rubber, resin, iron
Size
103x74x66cm
Edition
1/1
Artist's introduction

Menyhért Szabó is the most characteristic representative of the generation of Hungarian sculptors who started their careers at the end of the 2010s. His art updated the toolkit of the classical sculpture of faces and nudes with the crumpled nature of rubber shells and industrial colour surfaces, reinterpreting the dramatic figures of ancient mythology in a modern spirit. Born into a family of artists in Budapest, Menyhért Szabó became involved with plastic arts at a young age. After a detour in Antwerp, he graduated in 2018 from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture. Owing to his process-based working method, his works, using recurring motifs and self-quotations, are arranged in series and thematic units. His first works enlarged the human head to enormous proportions, combining the black raw material of industrial rubber with the classicising facial edges that radiate heroism. As a next step, Szabó made shell prints of the monumental sculptures. The rubber heads, created from the different coloured "imprints", were hung up as blank-faced masks in drapery during the installation. The chosen technique highlighted the most important form-building issue that Szabo was dealing with, the contradictory state of sculptural solidity and wrinkling elasticity. He sometimes "freezes" the unsupported shells in a particular position: he hardens them with resin or casts them in bronze, then places them on a traditional pedestal or encloses them in a frame. In his newer works, naked male bodies reminiscent of antique torsos are added to the crumpled silicone masks, which can be worn as clothes – maybe even as part of a fashion show. At the same time, these evoke the art-historical tradition of depictions of the flayed skin of the satyr Marsyas, who competed with Apollo. To counterpoint the mythologizing and antique style character, Szabó uses neon plastic colours or industrial metallic car polish paint on his rubber or metallic sculptures. The crumpling heroes become the protagonists of the tragic epics of the hi-tech age, while they can also be seen as enigmatic contemporary self-portraits. Szabó lives and works in Budapest, in the studio at the art colony on Százados út, where he was born. His characteristic sculptures are regularly included in group or solo exhibitions in Hungary. Gábor Rieder

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1415 Fridvalszki M†rk - Ad Futuro III.
Márk FRIDVALSZKI
Ad Futuro III

Márk FRIDVALSZKI

Ad Futuro III

Year(s)
2021
Technique
silkscreen print, acrylic, canvas
Size
60x60 cm
Artist's introduction

Márk Fridvalszki, who has been living and working in Berlin for more than ten years, started his studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna in 2004, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 2011 and later attended the Intermedia Department in Leipzig as a postgraduate student. His works from the mid-2010s, which the artist called "stark geometry", expressed a dark paranoia of the "techno-end" dominated by his interest in monochromatism, entropy and technology. He is a co-founder of the art collective and publishing project called Technologie und das Unheimliche (T+U) operating since 2014. His works can be found in the collections of the Ferenczy Museum, the Hungarian National Gallery and the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. In 2018, a decisive shift occurred in his art: Márk Fridvalszki attempted to break away with a "forward and upward" momentum from the framework of a neoliberal system without a future or criticism. His inspirational creative method builds up from the pastel and/or neon, cultural turning points and subcultural products of late popular modernism characterising Fischer, that pulsates in psychedelic colours and is collage-like in its inspiration – in his work titled Still Hight, he evokes Ilona Keserü's iconic, cosmic world of forms and the skin colour that became the trademark of his predecessor, emphasising the counterpoint of the image. According to Barnabás Zemlényi-Kovács, it is “»archeo-futurology«, a consistent exploration of the sonic and visual remnants of lost futures, modernist visions in a post-future, timeless age.” The works included in the collection are already all artifacts of a utopian “vision of the future”, seen in a universal and ontological perspective, excavations of nostalgia for the future, which, according to the artist, are intended to act as a catalyst to awaken avant-garde energies from their slumber. Annamária Szabó

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0972-Kondor-Attila-Ad-Infinitum.jpg
Attila KONDOR
Ad Infinitum

Attila KONDOR

Ad Infinitum

Year(s)
2003
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
180x120 cm
Artist's introduction

Attila Kondor represents a figurative derivation of oil painting that emerged after the turn of the millennium, drawing on the Italian tradition and striking a metaphysical note. He also created animations based on his meditative paintings, which use elements of classical architecture and garden design. "The images of the contemplative, conceptual animations are created on canvas and prints, where the presence of stillness and silence is conveyed not only by harmonious proportions and tonal transitions of soothing colours but also by the apparition-like glow of the highlights that almost split the painting plane, suggesting a supernatural light" - wrote art historian János Schneller about the artist's meditative approach. Kondor, born in Budapest, graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2000 with a degree in Graphic Arts. At that time, his artistic perspective was characterised by the traditional oil painting method and a search for classical themes. During his time at the university, he turned against the conceptual practice that dominated the intellectual climate of the 1990s and, as a rebellious gesture, painted plein air landscapes of the Élesd countryside in Transylvania as a member of the Sensaria Group, a group of traditionalist painting students. Although the group's attitude towards classical painting resonated among the realist tendencies that were gaining ground in the early 2000s, Kondor was isolated from the group because of his essentially philosophical, contemplative character. He was strongly influenced by Italy, the home of classical architecture and traditional garden design. His early paintings depicted unpopulated, meditative Italian castle gardens with reflecting surfaces of water, silent colonnades and classical sculptures. Subsequently, his canvases depicted architectural fragments from Budapest. Smudges and tactile surfaces accompanied his pictorial character's realistic, austere perspective. By the end of the decade, he found his own distinctive, individual iconography: gateways, staircases, marble halls and libraries, lifted from classical architecture and given symbolic power. Kondor's historical and philosophical worldview suggests that the proportions of the gates, windows and spaces correspond to the "majesty of the cosmos". The pictorial voids, highlighted by graphic white stripes or negative forms, indicate the proximity of mystery in this Arcadian, introspective world. Since 2013, Kondor has also been making meditative animated films from the "raw material" of his paintings, besides the oil paintings that he is constantly creating. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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0615-Korodi-Zsuzsanna-Adatbazis.jpg
Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI
Database

Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI

Database

Year(s)
2020
Technique
glued, hand polished glass, uv paint 
Size
3 pcs / 35x61 cm each
Artist's introduction

Zsuzsanna Kóródi's pictorial surfaces are closely related to the traditions of Op-art, Kinetic art, and in a broader sense, to Constructive-Concrete painting. Her works can be interpreted as images, objects and reliefs. They confuse the recipient not only because of this uncertainty in classification but also due to the alternation of contradictory (spatial) illusions. Maximum focus is needed to accommodate the real and virtual image spaces established by the rhythmic repetition of the fundamental geometric shapes, the dynamic tempo changes in the dramatic congestion and thinning of stripes and frequency-like lines. More and more constellations are elicited by the viewer's movements, making the spectacle continuously transform. Kóródi's works are also related to Op-art due to the image objects' industrial character: the works lack any form of individual gesture. The abstract character of the visual spectacle is reinterpreted through the use of highly associative titles. However, despite these associations, the images do not take on a narrative function but remain platforms where optical events occur. Instead of cognitive layers, Kóródi researches phenomena: her work thematises the interplay between visual impulses and the "responsive gaze". Kóródi often rethinks the design principles of her iridescent surfaces. Her works pose questions concerning the long-established dilemmas of art and illusion. In the wake of the legacy of significant predecessors, Kóródi provokes vision, combining the industrial character inherent in sterile forms with the singularity of flaring illusions and classical craftsmanship. Mónika Zsikla

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0365-Almasy-Aladar-Agricola-eletet-beszed-kozben-ismerteto-nagy-Dualizmusban-keverodott-Horatius.jpg
Aladár ALMÁSY
Horatius is presenting in word the life of Agricola is involved with Dualism

Aladár ALMÁSY

Horatius is presenting in word the life of Agricola is involved with Dualism

Year(s)
2017
Technique
watercolour and ink on paper
Size
57,5x75,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Aladár Almásy is one of the most distinctive figures of the generation of graphic artists of the 1970s, whose graphic universe is defined by mystical-psychological symbolism, romantic sensibility and linguistic humour. Noémi Szabó, art historian, described his distinctive character vividly: "He is invested in a romantic-surrealist eclecticism, constructing a dream world far from the current age, full of pretension, but at the same time honesty as well." Born in Debrecen, Almásy completed his graphic studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1976. In the 1970s, together with Imre Szemethy, he was the successor of the generation of graphic artists that had defined the previous decade and had established an important tendency and which was marked by the names of Béla Kondor, Arnold Gross, Csaba Rékassy and Ádám Würtz. His first works were etchings, lithographs, aquatints, mezzotints, and pen and ink drawings. His aesthetic world was characterised by jagged, fragmented draughtsmanship, dreamlike, surreal visions and playful linguistic humour. His numerous national solo exhibitions were accompanied by several international exhibitions. In his scandalous statement of 1978, he described himself as an individualistic dreamer: "My existence is a unique visual world of forms, determined by inner emotions, a pure inexhaustible world view, never committed to any fix direction." He gradually drifted towards painting in the 1980s, combining cloud-like patches of colour with his broken line work. His art, which looked to the past, evoked the poetic mood of turn-of-the-century symbolism, from the metaphorical enigma of Baudelaire to the nostalgic dreamscapes of Lajos Gulácsy. The heroes of his poetic narratives are often drawn from cultural history (István Széchenyi, Martin Luther, Zarathustra, etc.). Around the turn of the millennium, the medium of bronze sculpture also appeared in his œuvre, which embraces a wide range of techniques. His successful start to his career was accompanied by numerous state awards in the 1970s and 1980s. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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0483-Maurer-Dora-Ahogy-tetszik-12.jpg
Dóra MAURER
As You Like 12

Dóra MAURER

As You Like 12

Year(s)
1990
Technique
acrylic on wood
Size
2 pcs / 114x133 cm together
Artist's introduction

Although Dóra Maurer's work is seemingly related to Constructive-Concrete artistic tendencies, her artistic position can be understood much more along an internally evolving creative process founded on a coherent logic. The medially diverse oeuvre spans more than five decades and is organised around the central notion of the observation of movement and dislocation. Since her graphic artworks created in the 1960s, the intention to observe and make these processes visible emerges as a unifying notion that connects her photographic work in the 1970s and her paintings from more recent years. From the 1980s, Maurer's artistic practice moved increasingly towards easel painting. In this period, she painted several linear grids utilising different colours. Later she shifted the pictorial planes of the respective grids. She then depicted this raster grid deploying a shaped format in the Quod Libet series. She projected this linear network into space in the Buchberg project, which she finished in 1983. While working on this project, she noticed that the perception of colour constantly changed due to the room's variable lighting conditions. By utilising various cold and warm tones, Maurer focused on this phenomenon while working on her paintings from the 1980s to the 1990s. Maurer's work as a painter, as her entire practice, deals with human perception and attempts to make the inherent cognitive processes visible. Zsófia Rátkai

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0492-Maurer-Dora-Ahogy-tetszik-54.jpg
Dóra MAURER
As You Like 54

Dóra MAURER

As You Like 54

Year(s)
2009
Technique
acrylic on wood
Size
100x61x5 cm
Artist's introduction

Although Dóra Maurer's work is seemingly related to Constructive-Concrete artistic tendencies, her artistic position can be understood much more along an internally evolving creative process founded on a coherent logic. The medially diverse oeuvre spans more than five decades and is organised around the central notion of the observation of movement and dislocation. Since her graphic artworks created in the 1960s, the intention to observe and make these processes visible emerges as a unifying notion that connects her photographic work in the 1970s and her paintings from more recent years. From the 1980s, Maurer's artistic practice moved increasingly towards easel painting. In this period, she painted several linear grids utilising different colours. Later she shifted the pictorial planes of the respective grids. She then depicted this raster grid deploying a shaped format in the Quod Libet series. She projected this linear network into space in the Buchberg project, which she finished in 1983. While working on this project, she noticed that the perception of colour constantly changed due to the room's variable lighting conditions. By utilising various cold and warm tones, Maurer focused on this phenomenon while working on her paintings from the 1980s to the 1990s. Maurer's work as a painter, as her entire practice, deals with human perception and attempts to make the inherent cognitive processes visible. Zsófia Rátkai

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1430 Bal†zs Nikolett - Aj†ndāk
Nikolett BALÁZS
Gift

Nikolett BALÁZS

Gift

Year(s)
2021
Technique
pigment, silicone, textile
Size
45x35x6 cm
Artist's introduction

Nikolett Balázs, a member of the MŰTŐ collective, graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2016 with a degree in painting and has since received several significant awards: in 2020 she won the Secondary Archive Young Woman Artist competition, which was presented during Manifesta 14 – Prishtina 2022. In 2021 she was nominated for both the Leopold Bloom and Esterházy Art Awards, and two years later she was the first Hungarian artist invited to the SACO Biennale in Chile, followed by a 2-month residency program of the Visegrad Fund in New York. In February 2024, she had a solo exhibition in Bratislava titled Born Free. In her artistic practice, Balázs explores and reinterprets the dichotomies, generational, social, cultural and societal value crises that define and surround her, both aesthetically and substantively, in a raw, revealing act of letting go/resolving, in a constructivist synthesis of self-searching and self-reflection from a female perspective. In her work she uses the techniques she learned from her parents and grandparents, who worked in agriculture and manual labour in Létavértes, near the Romanian-Hungarian border. She kneads, plasters, screws, sews and cuts rubber tubes and canvas (burlap), metal shavings collected from the MÉH (waste utilization company) site, XPS sheets from construction waste, until the materials are reborn as a harmonious collage, which nevertheless evoke the makeshift solutions of small villages, their harsh but cozy “foul-up-aesthetics”. Nikolett Balázs describes her own works as “object clutches” that reach down to deep layers, offering a visual and haptic experience, a social and ecological imprint, through their abstract, austere structure, yet proliferating symbolism (Palást (Cloak), Szomjas virág (Thirsty flower), 2022). The works Hozzávalók (Ingredients), Origo and Fészek (Nest) (2021) are maternal metamorphosis stories of the sublime materials that have to be extracted from the “smoothness aesthetics” of the present, confessional monuments to self-portraiture, bodily representation and inner lyricism. Annamária Szabó

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0164-Major-Kamill-Akkad.jpg
Kamill MAJOR
Akkad

Kamill MAJOR

Akkad

Year(s)
2010
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
155,5x285,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Kamill Major's artistic practice, which was influenced by the Lantos Circle in Pécs in the 1960s, became unique in the artist's period of living in France. Although he resisted Lantos' principle of structure and variation, the possibility of implementing the mural enamel program in Bonyhád was made possible with his help. Even though he began his Parisian career with minimalist and systematic images, geometry was hidden in them, in a painterly and personal way. He acquired a degree in image reproduction procedures from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. As a result screen-printed variations of motifs and images replaced the previous pictorial structures. Outstanding among his folders (which included contemporary music and literary works) and graphic series is his process work titled Appel (1980), in which he reaches the spirituality of the critical works of modern art (such as Malevich's Black Square or White on White) based on the principle of seriality. Seriality is also one of the foundations of Major's technically complex pictures, which, working alongside Simon Hantai, unfolded in grid-patterned musters applied to huge canvases with screen-printing that could be adjusted strategically. By the 1980s, the central theme of ​​his work had become "writing". The different variations of his textual paintings and reliefs are still established with signs resembling Akkadian and Sumerian cuneiform script, but with particular forms, in some cases condensed, in others made sparse, relying on particular technical solutions (such as the utilisation of saws). Everything apart from this linear, text-like progression is random in these artworks. In 1975, he had a solo exhibition in Paris. His works can be found in significant French and Hungarian public collections. Katalin Keserü

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0179-Major-Kamill-Akkad___csere-179-es-178-179-et-forgatni-fejjel-lefele___20211211.jpg
Kamill MAJOR
Akkad

Kamill MAJOR

Akkad

Year(s)
2009
Technique
paint on canvas
Size
147,5x290x2,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Kamill Major's artistic practice, which was influenced by the Lantos Circle in Pécs in the 1960s, became unique in the artist's period of living in France. Although he resisted Lantos' principle of structure and variation, the possibility of implementing the mural enamel program in Bonyhád was made possible with his help. Even though he began his Parisian career with minimalist and systematic images, geometry was hidden in them, in a painterly and personal way. He acquired a degree in image reproduction procedures from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. As a result screen-printed variations of motifs and images replaced the previous pictorial structures. Outstanding among his folders (which included contemporary music and literary works) and graphic series is his process work titled Appel (1980), in which he reaches the spirituality of the critical works of modern art (such as Malevich's Black Square or White on White) based on the principle of seriality. Seriality is also one of the foundations of Major's technically complex pictures, which, working alongside Simon Hantai, unfolded in grid-patterned musters applied to huge canvases with screen-printing that could be adjusted strategically. By the 1980s, the central theme of ​​his work had become "writing". The different variations of his textual paintings and reliefs are still established with signs resembling Akkadian and Sumerian cuneiform script, but with particular forms, in some cases condensed, in others made sparse, relying on particular technical solutions (such as the utilisation of saws). Everything apart from this linear, text-like progression is random in these artworks. In 1975, he had a solo exhibition in Paris. His works can be found in significant French and Hungarian public collections. Katalin Keserü

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0159-Major-Kamill-Akkadian.jpg
Kamill MAJOR
Akkadian

Kamill MAJOR

Akkadian

Year(s)
1989
Technique
mixed media on wood
Size
121x249 cm
Artist's introduction

Kamill Major's artistic practice, which was influenced by the Lantos Circle in Pécs in the 1960s, became unique in the artist's period of living in France. Although he resisted Lantos' principle of structure and variation, the possibility of implementing the mural enamel program in Bonyhád was made possible with his help. Even though he began his Parisian career with minimalist and systematic images, geometry was hidden in them, in a painterly and personal way. He acquired a degree in image reproduction procedures from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. As a result screen-printed variations of motifs and images replaced the previous pictorial structures. Outstanding among his folders (which included contemporary music and literary works) and graphic series is his process work titled Appel (1980), in which he reaches the spirituality of the critical works of modern art (such as Malevich's Black Square or White on White) based on the principle of seriality. Seriality is also one of the foundations of Major's technically complex pictures, which, working alongside Simon Hantai, unfolded in grid-patterned musters applied to huge canvases with screen-printing that could be adjusted strategically. By the 1980s, the central theme of ​​his work had become "writing". The different variations of his textual paintings and reliefs are still established with signs resembling Akkadian and Sumerian cuneiform script, but with particular forms, in some cases condensed, in others made sparse, relying on particular technical solutions (such as the utilisation of saws). Everything apart from this linear, text-like progression is random in these artworks. In 1975, he had a solo exhibition in Paris. His works can be found in significant French and Hungarian public collections. Katalin Keserü

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