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Imre BAK
Current Situation

Imre BAK

Current Situation

Year(s)
2013
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
80x120 cm
Artist's introduction

Imre Bak established the specific character of his paintings in the mid-1960s, referencing the lessons of Geometric Abstraction to this day. Along with some of his contemporaries, Bak defied the geopolitics of the era and the existential and further difficulties arising from the existing social order to connect with the global art of the time. During the Iparterv exhibitions (1968–1969), Bak had already formulated the idea of combining the American tendencies of Hard-edge painting and Minimalism with motifs inspired by Hungarian folk art and the traditions of the local avant-garde. This structuralist programme – which consciously examined the nature of signs and symbols – defined his paintings from the 1970s. In the 1980s, the geometric system of Bak's paintings became increasingly complex, leading to the postmodern turn in the artist's work. During the 1990s, Bak's motifs shifted towards "simplification" again, as expanded surfaces of colour started to define his architecture-inspired paintings. In this period, Bak used perspective and a set of geometric elements to construct his landscapes, where the predominant motifs were "structures" consisting of architectural elements. In his latest work conceived after the 2000s, Bak returns to Geometric Abstraction's fundamental question of how spatial illusion is elicited through two-dimensional means. His compositions that combine rectangular fields of colour with dichromatic, meanderlike lines are based on the utilisation of pure, intense colours, which create the illusion of depth on the canvas. Áron Fenyvesi

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Róbert CSÁKI
Tunnel

Róbert CSÁKI

Tunnel

Year(s)
2012
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
100x127 cm
Artist's introduction

Róbert Csáki has been present in the Hungarian painting scene since the 1990s with his sinister, dreamlike visions. His world, which continues the tradition of panel painting, is defined by the bizarre dichotomy of surrealism and rococo. "His figures" – as the art writer Tihamér Novotny explained – "are weightless, floating, almost levitating in the vapour of memory: the real dissolves in the fog of imagination, in the atmosphere of vision." Born in Budapest, Csáki graduated as a painter from the Hungarian College of Arts during the regime change. His earliest works already bore the influence of 18th-century art. During a study trip to the Netherlands in 1996, he discovered the bizarre, grotesque, frightening bestiary that had influenced his later artistic performance to a greater extent. From the very beginning of his career, Csáki has been known for creating a painterly world that is difficult to categorise but easily recognisable, with an intense atmosphere. His style is characterised by a classical sensibility, pastose brushwork and virtuoso blurring. The inhabitants of his surreal, dreamlike, decaying artistic universe are not only grotesque puppets but also various animal-headed monsters, rococo figures lost in the mist, but also coastal landscapes or even still lifes, evoked through his virtuoso painterly style. And in his Hommage series, he has reinterpreted classics from art history, from Monet's water lilies to Velázquez's portrait of the Pope. He has held solo exhibitions in numerous venues in the provinces and the capital throughout a consistent career spanning several decades. He lives and works in Budapest.

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Árpád SZABADOS
Figure Pair I-II.

Árpád SZABADOS

Figure Pair I-II.

Year(s)
2013-2014
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
2 pcs / 180x140 cm each
Artist's introduction

Munkácsy Prize-winning Árpád Szabados first participated as a graphic artist in the renewal of Hungarian art in the late 1960s and early 1970s, liberating drawing from the constraints of representation, geometry and anatomy. This was followed by him enriching the scope of the Neue Wilde painting of the 1980s with his passionate, taboo-free, intense, sometimes even brutal drawing style and search for the credibility of painting and man's authentic representation. He influenced the approaches and perspectives of multiple generations, making them receptive to creative thinking with the founding of the GYIK Workshop, as the photo editor and artistic director of the Hungarian journal Mozgó Világ and as the rector of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. He was one of the "seekers" of the 20th century – an artist dealing with the fate and self-determination of human(ity) – whose goal was to search for a notion of art that had been valid for millennia. This search also meant a rediscovery of the foundations of art in the 1960s and 1980s, which was particularly rich in its findings. The archaic figures and torsos of his painting emphasize the biological functions of the body. At the same time, they are in motion: space is established through the body's active-passive emergence (sometimes the motifs are animals or plants). This space is sometimes a continuously unravelling paper scroll or a mural (a twentieth-century colouring book) – formats that he rediscovered through his artistic practice. In other cases, he rethought the tradition of the rectangular format based on even older concepts, creating complex image structures based on ornamental, open systems, such as the double images of the more recent decades. Katalin Keserü

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János SZIRTES
Basic Truth

János SZIRTES

Basic Truth

Year(s)
1986
Technique
mixed media on canvas
Size
101x145 cm
Artist's introduction

János Szirtes is an iconic figure of the contemporary art scene in Hungary. He is a painter, a graphic artist, a performer, a video- and media artist and a high-impact teacher, reforming the tuition of art. He is the head of the Media Design Department at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. The defining aspect of János Szirtes's four decades-long, interdisciplinary work is that in addition to his academic studies at the Bratislava College of Fine Arts and the Hungarian College of Fine Arts, he was also a member of the outstanding underground artistic workshops of the 1970s and 1980s. The innovative research conducted through experiments at the legendary Indigo Group led by Miklós Erdély, the general interdisciplinary attitude, the liberating, dadaist atmosphere of the Lajos Vajda Studio in Szentendre and the performances of Tibor Hajas, which opened up new avenues in art, all had a profound influence on the artistic position of János Szirtes. His paintings range from the tribal, organic-surrealist processing of motifs through a language of forms that breaks down living organisms into crystal-like shapes to multi-layered, formalist compositions, where the experience of space is established through the superimposition of layers and various ornamental elements. His images, which operate with expressive colours, dynamic forms, archaic symbols and motifs borrowed from other cultures, bring canonised and alternative (sub)cultures into a shared space. The creative process can be seen as an action, a performance or a rite – letting the image preserve the imprints of these gestures and movements that epitomise creative activity. Krisztina Kovács

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1396 Kis RĘka Csaba - Aliens Should Not Try To Act Like People
Róka Csaba KIS
Aliens Should Not Try To Act Like People

Róka Csaba KIS

Aliens Should Not Try To Act Like People

Year(s)
2022
Technique
oil, enamel, canvas
Size
100×89,5 cm
Artist's introduction

As a leading painter of Hungarian posthuman hybridity, he has been a regular participant in solo and group exhibitions for two decades, both on the local and the international scene. These include the Liverpool Biennial in 2010, a group exhibition at the Factory-Art Gallery in Berlin in 2011, then due to its impact, being added to the collection of the private MACT/CACT Museum and Center of Contemporary Art in Switzerland, and after 2011, one more Esterházy Art Award nomination in 2023. For the fourth time in his career, the central problem of his painting, the representation of the human figure, is ricocheted. While the few years following his graduation in 2007 were essentially characterised by the dynamic, dramatic contrasts of classical painting traditions such as Baroque and Romanticism, with a satirical overtone, in a naturalistic, horroristic narrative composition of colour and form, from the mid-2010s – having completely stripped of the realist approach – the influence of surrealism unfolded in the contrasting laboratory of “quite absurd, almost caricaturistically pathological subject matter”, as Gábor Rieder wrote on the artist’s exhibition titled Federation Of Decomposed Organs And Stripes. However, the distorted fragmentation of the human figure in his paintings reached its peak after 2020, as the human body parts became completely separated from their self-referentiality. The works from the same series, shown in the collection, are now abstract, deconstructed painting elements floating in the space of the picture, like the filtered presence of a cartoon character on another reality. The associative black and white stripe stamp, which is at once zebra carpet, hard-edge veneer constructions and the discount barcode of capitalist society, is applied to a predominantly colour-transitioned base layer, reminiscent of the typical colour palette of American car tuning. As a final layer of paintings, Kis Róka painted the deformed creatures, often distorted pop-cultural references, with the "melted gummy bear" effect of water-based enamel paint (Bad And Naughty, 2021). In the spring of 2023, however, the artist completely erased his hardware and dissolved the image space of his works in the pixel art bitmap matrix of trash aesthetics, making the distorted fragmentary creatures take full shape as stick figures again. Annamária Szabó

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Róbert CSÁKI
Twilight

Róbert CSÁKI

Twilight

Year(s)
2012
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
130x160 cm
Artist's introduction

Róbert Csáki has been present in the Hungarian painting scene since the 1990s with his sinister, dreamlike visions. His world, which continues the tradition of panel painting, is defined by the bizarre dichotomy of surrealism and rococo. "His figures" – as the art writer Tihamér Novotny explained – "are weightless, floating, almost levitating in the vapour of memory: the real dissolves in the fog of imagination, in the atmosphere of vision." Born in Budapest, Csáki graduated as a painter from the Hungarian College of Arts during the regime change. His earliest works already bore the influence of 18th-century art. During a study trip to the Netherlands in 1996, he discovered the bizarre, grotesque, frightening bestiary that had influenced his later artistic performance to a greater extent. From the very beginning of his career, Csáki has been known for creating a painterly world that is difficult to categorise but easily recognisable, with an intense atmosphere. His style is characterised by a classical sensibility, pastose brushwork and virtuoso blurring. The inhabitants of his surreal, dreamlike, decaying artistic universe are not only grotesque puppets but also various animal-headed monsters, rococo figures lost in the mist, but also coastal landscapes or even still lifes, evoked through his virtuoso painterly style. And in his Hommage series, he has reinterpreted classics from art history, from Monet's water lilies to Velázquez's portrait of the Pope. He has held solo exhibitions in numerous venues in the provinces and the capital throughout a consistent career spanning several decades. He lives and works in Budapest.

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Tamás MELKOVICS
Alloy Series, Composition 14.

Tamás MELKOVICS

Alloy Series, Composition 14.

Year(s)
2022
Technique
modular composition of 51 casted aluminium elements
Size
86,5x54x44 cm
Artist's introduction

While watching the sculptures of Tamás Melkovics, they address me as acquaintances. Sculptures that we think are about to move, to crawl off the plinth, or perhaps even signal to us with some kind of sound. They are familiar because within the organic abstract world, the artist has found a language that speaks to our collective unconscious and evokes associations with the living world, living things, birth and movement. The art of Tamás Melkovics constantly expands the sculptural framework, but does not cross a certain boundary, it remains within the limits of the discipline. The artist graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2012 as a sculptor, his master was Ádám Farkas. In 2018 and 2021, he was awarded the Gyula Derkovits Fine Arts Scholarship. He exhibited at the Parthenon-Frieze Room in 2017 and at the Várfok Gallery Project Room in 2019. He has participated in several group exhibitions in Budapest, Szentendre, Székesfehérvár, Dunaújváros, Pécs and Edinburgh. In addition to private collections, his art is also included in the collections of the Ferenczy Museum Centre, the Csók István Gallery in Székesfehérvár, the Kiscelli Museum - Budapest Gallery, and the ICA-D Institute of Contemporary Art in Dunaújváros. In his creations, he seeks systems, basic rules, regularities, as if to reach back to the roots and structure of life and the perceptual world. The recurring basic modules are perhaps designed to explore these basic regularities. Movement is fundamental in his work. Even those works that are separate creatures begin a dialogue with each other. In the language of science, the sculptures can refer to fractals, to the principles of growth and evolution, the dynamics of nature, where nothing ever stops for a moment, where everything is in constant change, transformation, movement and interaction, because this is the basis of biological life. While the artworks often resemble natural forms such as trees or fruits, the anthropomorphic sculptures, which resemble Tony Cragg, question the foundations of human existence, and the complex structures that eventually settle into one final shape point to human relationships and connections. Délia Vékony

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Tamás MELKOVICS
Alloy Series, Composition 19.

Tamás MELKOVICS

Alloy Series, Composition 19.

Year(s)
2022
Technique
modular composition of 65 casted aluminium elements
Size
128x57,5x38,5 cm
Artist's introduction

While watching the sculptures of Tamás Melkovics, they address me as acquaintances. Sculptures that we think are about to move, to crawl off the plinth, or perhaps even signal to us with some kind of sound. They are familiar because within the organic abstract world, the artist has found a language that speaks to our collective unconscious and evokes associations with the living world, living things, birth and movement. The art of Tamás Melkovics constantly expands the sculptural framework, but does not cross a certain boundary, it remains within the limits of the discipline. The artist graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2012 as a sculptor, his master was Ádám Farkas. In 2018 and 2021, he was awarded the Gyula Derkovits Fine Arts Scholarship. He exhibited at the Parthenon-Frieze Room in 2017 and at the Várfok Gallery Project Room in 2019. He has participated in several group exhibitions in Budapest, Szentendre, Székesfehérvár, Dunaújváros, Pécs and Edinburgh. In addition to private collections, his art is also included in the collections of the Ferenczy Museum Centre, the Csók István Gallery in Székesfehérvár, the Kiscelli Museum - Budapest Gallery, and the ICA-D Institute of Contemporary Art in Dunaújváros. In his creations, he seeks systems, basic rules, regularities, as if to reach back to the roots and structure of life and the perceptual world. The recurring basic modules are perhaps designed to explore these basic regularities. Movement is fundamental in his work. Even those works that are separate creatures begin a dialogue with each other. In the language of science, the sculptures can refer to fractals, to the principles of growth and evolution, the dynamics of nature, where nothing ever stops for a moment, where everything is in constant change, transformation, movement and interaction, because this is the basis of biological life. While the artworks often resemble natural forms such as trees or fruits, the anthropomorphic sculptures, which resemble Tony Cragg, question the foundations of human existence, and the complex structures that eventually settle into one final shape point to human relationships and connections. Délia Vékony

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Tamás MELKOVICS
Alloy Series, Composition 22.

Tamás MELKOVICS

Alloy Series, Composition 22.

Year(s)
2022
Technique
modular composition of 78 casted aluminium elements
Size
129,5x61x44 cm
Artist's introduction

While watching the sculptures of Tamás Melkovics, they address me as acquaintances. Sculptures that we think are about to move, to crawl off the plinth, or perhaps even signal to us with some kind of sound. They are familiar because within the organic abstract world, the artist has found a language that speaks to our collective unconscious and evokes associations with the living world, living things, birth and movement. The art of Tamás Melkovics constantly expands the sculptural framework, but does not cross a certain boundary, it remains within the limits of the discipline. The artist graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2012 as a sculptor, his master was Ádám Farkas. In 2018 and 2021, he was awarded the Gyula Derkovits Fine Arts Scholarship. He exhibited at the Parthenon-Frieze Room in 2017 and at the Várfok Gallery Project Room in 2019. He has participated in several group exhibitions in Budapest, Szentendre, Székesfehérvár, Dunaújváros, Pécs and Edinburgh. In addition to private collections, his art is also included in the collections of the Ferenczy Museum Centre, the Csók István Gallery in Székesfehérvár, the Kiscelli Museum - Budapest Gallery, and the ICA-D Institute of Contemporary Art in Dunaújváros. In his creations, he seeks systems, basic rules, regularities, as if to reach back to the roots and structure of life and the perceptual world. The recurring basic modules are perhaps designed to explore these basic regularities. Movement is fundamental in his work. Even those works that are separate creatures begin a dialogue with each other. In the language of science, the sculptures can refer to fractals, to the principles of growth and evolution, the dynamics of nature, where nothing ever stops for a moment, where everything is in constant change, transformation, movement and interaction, because this is the basis of biological life. While the artworks often resemble natural forms such as trees or fruits, the anthropomorphic sculptures, which resemble Tony Cragg, question the foundations of human existence, and the complex structures that eventually settle into one final shape point to human relationships and connections. Délia Vékony

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Tamás MELKOVICS
Alloy Series, Composition 28.

Tamás MELKOVICS

Alloy Series, Composition 28.

Year(s)
2022
Technique
modular composition of 106 casted aluminium elements
Size
185x65x40 cm
Artist's introduction

While watching the sculptures of Tamás Melkovics, they address me as acquaintances. Sculptures that we think are about to move, to crawl off the plinth, or perhaps even signal to us with some kind of sound. They are familiar because within the organic abstract world, the artist has found a language that speaks to our collective unconscious and evokes associations with the living world, living things, birth and movement. The art of Tamás Melkovics constantly expands the sculptural framework, but does not cross a certain boundary, it remains within the limits of the discipline. The artist graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2012 as a sculptor, his master was Ádám Farkas. In 2018 and 2021, he was awarded the Gyula Derkovits Fine Arts Scholarship. He exhibited at the Parthenon-Frieze Room in 2017 and at the Várfok Gallery Project Room in 2019. He has participated in several group exhibitions in Budapest, Szentendre, Székesfehérvár, Dunaújváros, Pécs and Edinburgh. In addition to private collections, his art is also included in the collections of the Ferenczy Museum Centre, the Csók István Gallery in Székesfehérvár, the Kiscelli Museum - Budapest Gallery, and the ICA-D Institute of Contemporary Art in Dunaújváros. In his creations, he seeks systems, basic rules, regularities, as if to reach back to the roots and structure of life and the perceptual world. The recurring basic modules are perhaps designed to explore these basic regularities. Movement is fundamental in his work. Even those works that are separate creatures begin a dialogue with each other. In the language of science, the sculptures can refer to fractals, to the principles of growth and evolution, the dynamics of nature, where nothing ever stops for a moment, where everything is in constant change, transformation, movement and interaction, because this is the basis of biological life. While the artworks often resemble natural forms such as trees or fruits, the anthropomorphic sculptures, which resemble Tony Cragg, question the foundations of human existence, and the complex structures that eventually settle into one final shape point to human relationships and connections. Délia Vékony

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Tamás MELKOVICS
Alloy Series, Composition 8.

Tamás MELKOVICS

Alloy Series, Composition 8.

Year(s)
2022
Technique
modular composition of 38 casted aluminium elements
Size
75x45x47,5 cm
Artist's introduction

While watching the sculptures of Tamás Melkovics, they address me as acquaintances. Sculptures that we think are about to move, to crawl off the plinth, or perhaps even signal to us with some kind of sound. They are familiar because within the organic abstract world, the artist has found a language that speaks to our collective unconscious and evokes associations with the living world, living things, birth and movement. The art of Tamás Melkovics constantly expands the sculptural framework, but does not cross a certain boundary, it remains within the limits of the discipline. The artist graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2012 as a sculptor, his master was Ádám Farkas. In 2018 and 2021, he was awarded the Gyula Derkovits Fine Arts Scholarship. He exhibited at the Parthenon-Frieze Room in 2017 and at the Várfok Gallery Project Room in 2019. He has participated in several group exhibitions in Budapest, Szentendre, Székesfehérvár, Dunaújváros, Pécs and Edinburgh. In addition to private collections, his art is also included in the collections of the Ferenczy Museum Centre, the Csók István Gallery in Székesfehérvár, the Kiscelli Museum - Budapest Gallery, and the ICA-D Institute of Contemporary Art in Dunaújváros. In his creations, he seeks systems, basic rules, regularities, as if to reach back to the roots and structure of life and the perceptual world. The recurring basic modules are perhaps designed to explore these basic regularities. Movement is fundamental in his work. Even those works that are separate creatures begin a dialogue with each other. In the language of science, the sculptures can refer to fractals, to the principles of growth and evolution, the dynamics of nature, where nothing ever stops for a moment, where everything is in constant change, transformation, movement and interaction, because this is the basis of biological life. While the artworks often resemble natural forms such as trees or fruits, the anthropomorphic sculptures, which resemble Tony Cragg, question the foundations of human existence, and the complex structures that eventually settle into one final shape point to human relationships and connections. Délia Vékony

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Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI
Subfolder I.

Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI

Subfolder I.

Year(s)
2019
Technique
glued, hand polished glass, UV paint 
Size
35x35 cm
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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0618-Korodi-Zsuzsanna-Almappa-II.jpg
Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI
Subfolder II.

Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI

Subfolder II.

Year(s)
2019
Technique
glued, hand polished glass, UV paint 
Size
35x35 cm
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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0616-Korodi-Zsuzsanna-Almappa-IV.jpg
Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI
Subfolder IV.

Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI

Subfolder IV.

Year(s)
2020
Technique
glued, hand polished glass, UV paint 
Size
37x61,5 cm
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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Aladár ALMÁSY
Sadly strolling from waking from a dream – So-called Calliope the muse's blessing at Horatius

Aladár ALMÁSY

Sadly strolling from waking from a dream – So-called Calliope the muse's blessing at Horatius

Year(s)
2018
Technique
pastel, watercolour and ink on paper
Size
56x76,5 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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Zsuzsa MOIZER
Dreaming of the flesh

Zsuzsa MOIZER

Dreaming of the flesh

Year(s)
2018
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
150x160 cm
Artist's introduction

Zsuzsa Moizer graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2004, majoring in painting. She gained wide recognition with the drawing activity book titled “Everyone can draw” published in 2012 (together with Zsófia Barabás), which was translated into several languages. She has also participated in residencies in Rome (Collegium Hungaricum) and Vienna (Alte Schmiede Kunstverein). She currently lives and works in Germany and in Budapest. Zsuzsa Moizer is mainly known for her aquarelles and oil paintings, but she also creates sculptures and installations. In her works she explores various themes of femininity (intimacy, sensuality, sexuality) and the cycle of life and death. Her career began with a series of self-portraits, and gradually her work became more and more saturated with content. In her work, she returns to self-portrayal, and in her series of self-portraits the stereotypical qualities associated with femininity (sacrifice, care, fertility) take form. In her subdued colour images, the search for identity, and the issue of gender roles unfold. In her oil paintings, the expressivity and intuitive character of aquarelles is combined with the honesty of self-portraits, where she also allows room for the formative role of random compositions. She usually depicts faces and bodies each with different painterly attention, creating a tension between the figurative and the abstract details, those that are shown and those that lie behind the surface. Her paintings, which allow a glimpse into the personal, intimate sphere of the artist, can be interpreted as inner landscapes, tracing the creases of the soul, the depths and heights of emotion. PV

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Krisztián FREY
Until I am the middle of the world

Krisztián FREY

Until I am the middle of the world

Year(s)
circa 1970
Technique
mixed media on fibreboard
Size
100x66,5 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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Martin GÓTH
Amoeba in the Squared Exercise Book

Martin GÓTH

Amoeba in the Squared Exercise Book

Year(s)
2021
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
100x70 cm
Artist's introduction

Martin Góth is one of the representatives of the young generation of Hungarian artists entering the art scene around 2020, who are developing a strong language of forms. On his acrylic tableaus, digital retro mixes with the theory of signs and subcultural icons. Martin Góth, born in Kaposvár, – following a detour to Berlin and Glasgow – graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2021, majoring in painting. His language of painting, which was then maturing, is constructed of schematized signs and pop-cultural motifs embedded in a geometric grid system. The basic organising theme of his images is the square mesh of old computer games and board games such as Tetris, minesweeper, tic tac toe or chess. The grid pattern is filled with the three-dimensional buttons, axonometric elements, pictograms and schematized icons familiar from early Windows. As curator Eszter Dalma Kollár explained, "the system of 8×8 cm squares and the 1 cm wide lines separating them is the base for each painting. Martin has filled these with a bunch of personal little stories, visual gags and fictional characters." The precise, pixelated aesthetic character of the digital retro-inspired form set is balanced by raw painting gestures, hand scribbles and graffiti marks. Góth's conceptual approach to art sometimes leaves the plane of the tableau and extends the playing field to the entire exhibition area. He has participated in several solo and group exhibitions in Hungary. He lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI
Analog XI.

Zsuzsanna KÓRÓDI

Analog XI.

Year(s)
2019
Technique
glued, hand polished glass, UV paint 
Size
39x39
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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Róbert CSÁKI
Angel on the Side of the Bed I.

Róbert CSÁKI

Angel on the Side of the Bed I.

Year(s)
2008
Technique
oil on wooden board
Size
30x26 cm
Artist's introduction

Róbert Csáki has been present in the Hungarian painting scene since the 1990s with his sinister, dreamlike visions. His world, which continues the tradition of panel painting, is defined by the bizarre dichotomy of surrealism and rococo. "His figures" – as the art writer Tihamér Novotny explained – "are weightless, floating, almost levitating in the vapour of memory: the real dissolves in the fog of imagination, in the atmosphere of vision." Born in Budapest, Csáki graduated as a painter from the Hungarian College of Arts during the regime change. His earliest works already bore the influence of 18th-century art. During a study trip to the Netherlands in 1996, he discovered the bizarre, grotesque, frightening bestiary that had influenced his later artistic performance to a greater extent. From the very beginning of his career, Csáki has been known for creating a painterly world that is difficult to categorise but easily recognisable, with an intense atmosphere. His style is characterised by a classical sensibility, pastose brushwork and virtuoso blurring. The inhabitants of his surreal, dreamlike, decaying artistic universe are not only grotesque puppets but also various animal-headed monsters, rococo figures lost in the mist, but also coastal landscapes or even still lifes, evoked through his virtuoso painterly style. And in his Hommage series, he has reinterpreted classics from art history, from Monet's water lilies to Velázquez's portrait of the Pope. He has held solo exhibitions in numerous venues in the provinces and the capital throughout a consistent career spanning several decades. He lives and works in Budapest.

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Róbert CSÁKI
Angel on the Side of the Bed II.

Róbert CSÁKI

Angel on the Side of the Bed II.

Year(s)
2011
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
200x250 cm
Artist's introduction

Róbert Csáki has been present in the Hungarian painting scene since the 1990s with his sinister, dreamlike visions. His world, which continues the tradition of panel painting, is defined by the bizarre dichotomy of surrealism and rococo. "His figures" – as the art writer Tihamér Novotny explained – "are weightless, floating, almost levitating in the vapour of memory: the real dissolves in the fog of imagination, in the atmosphere of vision." Born in Budapest, Csáki graduated as a painter from the Hungarian College of Arts during the regime change. His earliest works already bore the influence of 18th-century art. During a study trip to the Netherlands in 1996, he discovered the bizarre, grotesque, frightening bestiary that had influenced his later artistic performance to a greater extent. From the very beginning of his career, Csáki has been known for creating a painterly world that is difficult to categorise but easily recognisable, with an intense atmosphere. His style is characterised by a classical sensibility, pastose brushwork and virtuoso blurring. The inhabitants of his surreal, dreamlike, decaying artistic universe are not only grotesque puppets but also various animal-headed monsters, rococo figures lost in the mist, but also coastal landscapes or even still lifes, evoked through his virtuoso painterly style. And in his Hommage series, he has reinterpreted classics from art history, from Monet's water lilies to Velázquez's portrait of the Pope. He has held solo exhibitions in numerous venues in the provinces and the capital throughout a consistent career spanning several decades. He lives and works in Budapest.

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Ferenc VESZELY
Month of Angels, montage

Ferenc VESZELY

Month of Angels, montage

Year(s)
2015
Technique
pencil and ecolin on cardboard
Size
50x80 cm
Artist's introduction

Ferenc Veszely graduated as a graphic artist, painter and teacher at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1968. Because of the recommendation of Master Jenő Barcsay, the Ferenczy Museum in Szentendre invited him to arrange an introductory exhibition that autumn. He is a winner of the Munkácsy Prize. His non-figurative paintings were related to contemporary art's dynamic trends (Action Painting, Pop art, Hard-edge painting). His mixed-media artworks (which included collaged, scribbled, paper-based elements) associated the painter with the birth of new art at the time. He soon became captivated by Pop art, its reproduction techniques, its method of engulfing and appropriating everything. Veszely reacted to this with particular political-historical sensitivity and commitment and updated and actualised the outstanding works of art history. In his practice, the aesthetic approach receded into the background. He returned to painting as an autonomous creative activity in the 1990s, and grapes started populating his paintings in a completely airtight manner. He rehabilitated the classic genre of still-life painting with an evocative yet straightforward element, the spherical grape, the harmony of colours and light, the possibilities inherent to the material of paint and the powerful, sometimes even brutal hunger for reality typical of pop art. He also transformed form: into a celestial body in the case of the 12 Months series, or a pearl, a bubble, by reworking old images or just capturing the bright colours of grapes – slightly translucent in the sunshine – with watercolour. All this happened according to the attributes of one given form or as an expansion of that motif. Katalin Keserü

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Simon HANTAÏ
Aquarelle

Simon HANTAÏ

Aquarelle

Year(s)
1971
Technique
watercolour on paper
Size
65,5x56,5 cm
Artist's introduction

Simon Hantaï studied painting at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts under the supervision of Vilmos Aba-Novák and Béla Kontuly. In 1948, he won a one-year scholarship to study in Paris, which was later withdrawn due to changes in the political climate. After finally immigrating to Paris, he got acquainted with André Breton and his circle. He covered his vivid canvases with fantastic creatures, organic forms, and biomorphic shapes and conducted experiments with the genre and technical apparatus of painting. Parallel to his surrealist paintings, his work became more and more gestural due to his continuous experimentation. When the work of the New York School was exhibited in Paris, he came under the influence of Abstract Expressionism, motivated above all by Pollock's paintings. From the 1960s, he developed a unique technique called pliage: by folding, creasing and painting the canvas, he created abstract patterns on vast, expansive surfaces. In 1982, Hantaï represented France at the Venice Biennale; he then decided to retire from the public for a period. However, his absence from the art scene did not mean a break with painting: Hantaï never stopped creating and continued to re-examine his oeuvre. In addition to the leading Hungarian art institutions, his work can be found in international, world-famous collections such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Vatican Museum in Rome, the Musée d'Art Contemporain in Nice, Christie's in London and several significant private collections. Viktória Popovics

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Balázs SZABÓ LOBOT
Ara Loop

Balázs SZABÓ LOBOT

Ara Loop

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

Balázs Szabó Lobot is one of the emblematic figures of the street art scene of Pest, which emerged after the turn of the millennium. His painting is defined by a naive character similar to children’s drawings, and is inspired by graffiti. Szabó, born in Nagykanizsa, graduated from the Hungarian University of Applied Arts in 2005 after a short detour in Ljubljana. His career as a member of the street art group named 1000% was defined by ephemeral, anonymous, street visuals. Hence the stage name "Lobot", which he used later on. Achieving great success in the genre, 1000% has regularly appeared in contemporary exhibition institutions that were open to street art, but Szabó has also exhibited his own autonomous artworks in Budapest. His art world was defined by a spontaneous fusion of graffiti and comics, by a style reminiscent of the Basquiat of the 80s, combined with an Eastern European DIY-spirit. His visual narratives are permeated by the experiences and objects of the underground music scene (mixing desks, synthesizers, posters, etc.), often embodied as objects. Around 2020, his painting moved closer to the abstract language, but retained its naive, children’s drawing-like character – often reminiscent of crayon drawing because of the oil pastel and oil stick. Brick grids, coiled strands, tubes and circles are snaked in front of a neutral space or stacked as building blocks. The playfully composed works, which tend towards non-figurativity, sometimes contain fragments of motifs from earlier pictorial narratives mixed with hidden symbols of fresh experiences. Szabó lives and works in Budapest. Besides his autonomous fine art and street art works, he is also known as an applied graphic artist and as a VJ. Gábor Rieder

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Szilárd CSEKE
Flood

Szilárd CSEKE

Flood

Year(s)
2007
Technique
oil and lacquer on canvas
Size
100x150 cm
Artist's introduction

Szilárd Cseke is one of the well-known artists of the generation who entered the scene in the 1990s, becoming known at home and internationally for his decorative, bright forest paintings and kinetic installations. Emese Révész analysed his painterly vision as a typical attitude of the 2000s: 'Cseke's painterly attitude is also a generational creed, the basic idea of which is the rehabilitation of painterly beauty, the defiant embrace of "pleasure painting". Returning to the old role of the painter, he is an illusionist who creates experiences, and his painting is both an object of relaxation and meditation." Szilárd Cseke, born in Pápa, studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Pécs and then at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts during the regime change. He first constructed mobile works of art from plastic, car tyres and fans, then painted monochrome still-lifes and storyboard-like scenes with soft, ephemeral brushwork. He found his distinctive stylistic world in the early 2000s as a prominent representative of the new mainstream of digital image-based painting emerging at the turn of the millennium. His decorative period, which began in 2002, with its serene mood, analysed the romantic, symbolic duality of forest trees and sky in a post-digital optical experience. He broke down the photo-based landscape into layers and then built up the image space step by step, creating a varied facture. In places, he scraped back or sanded back the smeared, painted, dripped-dotted oil, acrylic, enamel and lacquer paint. The rich surfaces of different properties and craft pushed the conceptual boundaries of digital image-making and traditional fine art. As art historian Sándor Hornyik said: "From a distance, the painting as a whole gives the impression of a digialtised photograph, but up close, the complexity of the 'ground' is revealed; the green patches do not break down into pixels but are organised into subtle brushstrokes (...) What is exciting about the end result is that it is both painterly and hyper-modern. The generic subject becomes secondary, but the technical complexity works brilliantly." After the emblematic forest paintings, Cseke returned to compositions following life and then built kinetic, conceptual installations with motors – analysing social relations. His largest installation ensemble, Sustainable Identities, was presented at the Hungarian pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2015. Constantly experimenting with new techniques, around 2020, Cseke revisited forest paintings, reverting to nature, in bright visionary colours, in response to the urban lifestyle changed by the pandemic. Cseke lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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Ilona KESERÜ
Stream

Ilona KESERÜ

Stream

Year(s)
1975-1989
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
180x120 cm
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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Dávid SZENTGRÓTI
Gold Blue

Dávid SZENTGRÓTI

Gold Blue

Year(s)
2018
Technique
acrylic and pigment on canvas
Size
191x160 cm
Artist's introduction

Dávid Szentgróti is one of the most outstanding abstract gestural painters of the generation that emerged following the turn of the millennium, who cherishes the decades-old tradition of colourism and non-figurativity typical of Pécs. According to art historian György Várkonyi, "Dávid Szentgróti's paintings meet the timeless criteria of the 'easel painting' in every respect. These paintings are about painting itself: about the first movement and decision (...), about the poetic possibilities of the "application" of paint, the mixing/blending of colours relying on a variety of technical solutions, and the unfolding poetic possibilities." Szentgróti, born in Zalaegerszeg, graduated in painting from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pécs in 2006 and obtained his doctoral degree (DLA) in 2013. Since the 2000s, his œuvre has been enriched by the non-figurative painting tradition of Pécs, from the surrealist forms of Ferenc Martyn to the colourism of Ilona Keserü, to the compositional logic of Ernő Tolvaly. Vivid colours, expressive brushwork and figurative motifs between these gestures defined Szentgróti's works from the 2000s. In the 2010s, as he simplified his motifs, the abstract gesture applied with a broad brush became increasingly dominant. Towards the end of the decade, Szentgróti's non-figurative imagery – with its varied surface treatment – became increasingly dense. In contrast, the alternation of broad brushstrokes and expressive surfaces was replaced by fields of acrylic paint mixed with pigments, transforming the canvases into an increasingly bright and translucent direction. The paintings, built up from thin coats of paint, evoke the aesthetics and layering of digital image editing software. Although the seemingly spontaneous gestures evoke the instinctive image-making of Informel Painting, Szentgróti follows a carefully pre-determined artistic program. In the words of art historian János Schneller: "The superimposition of the paint layers on the surface of the canvas, i.e. the consciously evoked structures, is perhaps the most important aspect of the concept." This artistic process, which questions the ontology of painting, cultivates and rewrites tradition simultaneously. Present on the local and national scene, Szentgróti is a teacher at the Secondary School of Art in Pécs. He lives and works in Pécs.

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Aladár ALMÁSY
Ode refrain upsetting Aristotle's mushroom

Aladár ALMÁSY

Ode refrain upsetting Aristotle's mushroom

Year(s)
2018
Technique
watercolour and ink on paper
Size
57x75,5 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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Péter UJHÁZI
Árki

Péter UJHÁZI

Árki

Year(s)
2018
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
110x110 cm
Artist's introduction

The Munkácsy Prize-winning artist Péter Ujházi graduated in 1966 from the Hungarian College of Fine Arts' Painting Department. There seems to be virtually no trace of his masters, János Kmetty and Aurél Bernáth, in his work, which was the case for many of his contemporaries, who wanted to create "New Art". Ujházi developed his pictorial universe during the 1970s: his artistic position could be characterised with an anti-aesthetic attitude and a new aesthetic, which opposed high art. Ujházi has retained a fundamentally narrative approach to this day (reinforced by textual segments appearing in the works) and has developed this through various technical means: paintings, box pieces, collages, graphic work, assemblages, artist books and a series of wooden, ceramic and iron sculptures. One of his innovations is the unique "carousel perspective", which is established by the simultaneous utilisation of several perspectives. His other characteristic innovation is the figurative attitude reminiscent of children's drawings and graffiti. He has painted three major historical compositions in this style (The Siege of Fehérvár and the Deportation of Wathay, 1972; The Last Pagan Rebellion, 1972–73 and Jellasics's Run, 1973). From the four edges of a painting, a straight path led to scenes staged in a cosmic dimension and the conservation of everyday life's distinct locations and figures in the form of panoramas composed on the surface of the canvas. Expressive colours and a vibrant, gestural brushwork characterises his series depicting landscapes and foliage, which forms a significant chapter in the artist’s oeuvre since the late 1960s. Krisztina Kocsis – Katalin Keserü

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Péter UJHÁZI
Sour Cherry of Árki

Péter UJHÁZI

Sour Cherry of Árki

Year(s)
2017
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
110x110 cm
Artist's introduction

The Munkácsy Prize-winning artist Péter Ujházi graduated in 1966 from the Hungarian College of Fine Arts' Painting Department. There seems to be virtually no trace of his masters, János Kmetty and Aurél Bernáth, in his work, which was the case for many of his contemporaries, who wanted to create "New Art". Ujházi developed his pictorial universe during the 1970s: his artistic position could be characterised with an anti-aesthetic attitude and a new aesthetic, which opposed high art. Ujházi has retained a fundamentally narrative approach to this day (reinforced by textual segments appearing in the works) and has developed this through various technical means: paintings, box pieces, collages, graphic work, assemblages, artist books and a series of wooden, ceramic and iron sculptures. One of his innovations is the unique "carousel perspective", which is established by the simultaneous utilisation of several perspectives. His other characteristic innovation is the figurative attitude reminiscent of children's drawings and graffiti. He has painted three major historical compositions in this style (The Siege of Fehérvár and the Deportation of Wathay, 1972; The Last Pagan Rebellion, 1972–73 and Jellasics's Run, 1973). From the four edges of a painting, a straight path led to scenes staged in a cosmic dimension and the conservation of everyday life's distinct locations and figures in the form of panoramas composed on the surface of the canvas. Expressive colours and a vibrant, gestural brushwork characterises his series depicting landscapes and foliage, which forms a significant chapter in the artist’s oeuvre since the late 1960s. Krisztina Kocsis – Katalin Keserü

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Attila KONDOR
Ars memoriae IV.

Attila KONDOR

Ars memoriae IV.

Year(s)
2010
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
80x100 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
Asclepion

Attila KONDOR

Asclepion

Year(s)
2021
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
70x70 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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0163-Major-Kamill-Asszir.jpg
Kamill MAJOR
Assyrian

Kamill MAJOR

Assyrian

Year(s)
2012-2019
Technique
paint on wood
Size
175x130 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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0175-Major-Kamill-Asszir.jpg
Kamill MAJOR
Assyrian

Kamill MAJOR

Assyrian

Year(s)
2010
Technique
paint on canvas
Size
90x134x2,5 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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0177-Major-Kamill-Asszir.jpg
Kamill MAJOR
Assyrian

Kamill MAJOR

Assyrian

Year(s)
2010
Technique
paint on canvas
Size
260x350 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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0178-Major-Kamill-Asszir___csere-178-es-179___20211211.jpg
Kamill MAJOR
Assyrian

Kamill MAJOR

Assyrian

Year(s)
2013
Technique
paint on canvas
Size
265x471 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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Ferenc VESZELY
Shrivelled Grapes

Ferenc VESZELY

Shrivelled Grapes

Year(s)
2005
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
120x200 cm
Artist's introduction

Ferenc Veszely graduated as a graphic artist, painter and teacher at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts in 1968. Because of the recommendation of Master Jenő Barcsay, the Ferenczy Museum in Szentendre invited him to arrange an introductory exhibition that autumn. He is a winner of the Munkácsy Prize. His non-figurative paintings were related to contemporary art's dynamic trends (Action Painting, Pop art, Hard-edge painting). His mixed-media artworks (which included collaged, scribbled, paper-based elements) associated the painter with the birth of new art at the time. He soon became captivated by Pop art, its reproduction techniques, its method of engulfing and appropriating everything. Veszely reacted to this with particular political-historical sensitivity and commitment and updated and actualised the outstanding works of art history. In his practice, the aesthetic approach receded into the background. He returned to painting as an autonomous creative activity in the 1990s, and grapes started populating his paintings in a completely airtight manner. He rehabilitated the classic genre of still-life painting with an evocative yet straightforward element, the spherical grape, the harmony of colours and light, the possibilities inherent to the material of paint and the powerful, sometimes even brutal hunger for reality typical of pop art. He also transformed form: into a celestial body in the case of the 12 Months series, or a pearl, a bubble, by reworking old images or just capturing the bright colours of grapes – slightly translucent in the sunshine – with watercolour. All this happened according to the attributes of one given form or as an expansion of that motif. Katalin Keserü

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Szilárd CSEKE
Through the depth

Szilárd CSEKE

Through the depth

Year(s)
2019
Technique
oil, enamel on canvas
Size
130x130 cm
Artist's introduction

Szilárd Cseke is one of the well-known artists of the generation who entered the scene in the 1990s, becoming known at home and internationally for his decorative, bright forest paintings and kinetic installations. Emese Révész analysed his painterly vision as a typical attitude of the 2000s: 'Cseke's painterly attitude is also a generational creed, the basic idea of which is the rehabilitation of painterly beauty, the defiant embrace of "pleasure painting". Returning to the old role of the painter, he is an illusionist who creates experiences, and his painting is both an object of relaxation and meditation." Szilárd Cseke, born in Pápa, studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Pécs and then at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts during the regime change. He first constructed mobile works of art from plastic, car tyres and fans, then painted monochrome still-lifes and storyboard-like scenes with soft, ephemeral brushwork. He found his distinctive stylistic world in the early 2000s as a prominent representative of the new mainstream of digital image-based painting emerging at the turn of the millennium. His decorative period, which began in 2002, with its serene mood, analysed the romantic, symbolic duality of forest trees and sky in a post-digital optical experience. He broke down the photo-based landscape into layers and then built up the image space step by step, creating a varied facture. In places, he scraped back or sanded back the smeared, painted, dripped-dotted oil, acrylic, enamel and lacquer paint. The rich surfaces of different properties and craft pushed the conceptual boundaries of digital image-making and traditional fine art. As art historian Sándor Hornyik said: "From a distance, the painting as a whole gives the impression of a digialtised photograph, but up close, the complexity of the 'ground' is revealed; the green patches do not break down into pixels but are organised into subtle brushstrokes (...) What is exciting about the end result is that it is both painterly and hyper-modern. The generic subject becomes secondary, but the technical complexity works brilliantly." After the emblematic forest paintings, Cseke returned to compositions following life and then built kinetic, conceptual installations with motors – analysing social relations. His largest installation ensemble, Sustainable Identities, was presented at the Hungarian pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2015. Constantly experimenting with new techniques, around 2020, Cseke revisited forest paintings, reverting to nature, in bright visionary colours, in response to the urban lifestyle changed by the pandemic. Cseke lives and works in Budapest. Gábor Rieder

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0498-Maurer-Dora-Athallasok.jpg
Dóra MAURER
Connotations

Dóra MAURER

Connotations

Year(s)
2008
Technique
oil pastel on paper
Size
70x100 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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0499-Maurer-Dora-Athallasok.jpg
Dóra MAURER
Connotations

Dóra MAURER

Connotations

Year(s)
2005
Technique
oil pastel on paper
Size
70x100 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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Judit HORVÁTH LÓCZI
Connotations

Judit HORVÁTH LÓCZI

Connotations

Year(s)
2007
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
3 pcs / 70x50 cm each
Artist's introduction

Judit Horváth Lóczi graduated as a landscape architect and obtained a second degree in colour engineering at the Budapest University of Technology. Between 2011 and 2014, she graduated from the Budapest Metropolitan University with a degree in Visual Representation. In 2019, she was awarded the Fellowship of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in the United States of America. In 2022, she was the finalist of the Kassák Contemporary Art Prize. Judit Horváth Lóczi's work is connected to the constructivist-geometric tradition, and her individual vision represents a new (female) sensibility in the Hungarian art scene. Her oeuvre to date consists of a series of paintings and objects that are thematically interconnected, searching for new paths concerning the question of form and exploring possible points of intersection between the medium of painting and sculpture. Her works blend pictorial flatness and spatiality to create a distinctive visual language based on abstraction, geometry, dynamics and rhythm. The supports of Horváth's spatially expansive paintings are pre-designed shaped canvas constructions whose geometric rigidity is counterbalanced by a vivid palette and intuitive compositional style. In addition to traditional materials, one of the hallmarks of her artistic practice is the deployment of unusual, extreme objects as supports. Her work is usually inspired by everyday situations or personal stories, which she presents through constructing geometric compositions built on fundamental forms. She gives voice to intimate yet universal experiences such as becoming a mother or the everyday difficulties of raising a child. As she puts it, "each work is an entry in my diary." Viktória Popovics

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0494-Maurer-Dora-Athatasok.jpg
Dóra MAURER
Impressions

Dóra MAURER

Impressions

Year(s)
2000
Technique
acrylic on wood
Size
38x37,5 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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Franyo AATOTH
Impenetrable

Franyo AATOTH

Impenetrable

Year(s)
2012
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
195x97 cm
Artist's introduction

Aatoth Franyo is an artist who follows the tradition of New Painting's Neo-Dadaist vein of the 1980s. His œuvre, which unfolds like that of a bohemian cosmopolitan, has been informed by the culture of various countries. Márton Gerlóczy defines him as a "world-famous painter who refrains from world fame". In his own words, he is an "exhibitionist" because he always wants to "show an aspect" of himself. Born in Nyíregyháza, István Ferenc Tóth, creating under the name "aatoth franyo", was a chemical technician, but in the seventies, he chose a career in fine arts. Victor Vasarely brought him to Paris in 1978, where he graduated from the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. As a world-travelling artist, he has lived and worked in several Western countries and exotic locations in North Africa, Mongolia and Thailand. His art was inspired by the New Painting of the 1980s in France, the naïve figurativity of Figuration Libre, the spontaneous aesthetics of graffiti and the unbridled spirit of Neo-Dadaism. The sombre colours of his early paintings were replaced in the early nineties, under the influence of his stay in Mongolia, by the emblematic burgundy red, which embodies a wide range of traditional meanings such as fire, blood, love, hell, flame, revolution and hot spices. In the red spaces, elicited through the use of expressive brushwork, grotesque figures and motifs in the style of children's drawings emerge. The often absurd, humorous or philosophical content is complemented by Hungarian, French and English texts. Around 2010, Aatoth Franyo's artistic practice gradually took a new direction: the artist set up a studio deep in the jungles of Thailand, where he experienced the destructive impact of civilisation on the endless rainforest. From then on, the lush vegetation in his work appears as arabesque gestures and calligraphic marks, transforming the paint applied directly onto the canvas from the tube into an abstract system. In addition to his dominant painterly practice, his bohemian œuvre includes a guidebook for travellers, animation films, objects and installations. His work can be found in many international public collections, from the Gallery of Modern Art in Ulaanbaatar to the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. He lives and works in Paris and Thailand. Gábor Rieder

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0577-Konok-Tamas-Atirt-piramis.jpg
Tamás KONOK
Rewritten Pyramid

Tamás KONOK

Rewritten Pyramid

Year(s)
2002
Technique
acrylic on canvas
Size
150x150 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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0491-Maurer-Dora-Atjaras-3.jpg
Dóra MAURER
Transit 3.

Dóra MAURER

Transit 3.

Year(s)
2002
Technique
acrylic on wood
Size
90x70x3 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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0957-Kondor-Attila-Atjaro.jpg
Attila KONDOR
Passage

Attila KONDOR

Passage

Year(s)
2019
Technique
oil on canvas
Size
100x120 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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0111-Nadler-Istvan-Atlo-II.jpg
István NÁDLER
Diagonal II.

István NÁDLER

Diagonal II.

Year(s)
2008
Technique
casein tempera on canvas
Size
200x150 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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0654-Fajo-Janos-Atlok.jpg
János FAJÓ
Diagonals

János FAJÓ

Diagonals

Year(s)
1998
Technique
oil on wood
Size
250x80 cm
Artist's introduction

János Fajó is one of the leading figures of Hungarian Constructive Geometric art. During his decades-long career, he researched empirical and geometric phenomena with a unique rigour. In his work, he investigated repetitive structures and their complex variations. His experiments in form spanned different media, including graphic work, screenprints, paintings, wall objects and sculptures. The easily recognisable, orderly visual universe of his works points to the inexhaustible nature of colour and form, relying on the purest pictorial attitude. He created symmetry, asymmetry, infinite variation of movement, rhythm, and dynamic relations by organising simple planar shapes. János Fajó graduated from the Hungarian College of Applied Arts in 1961. In 1971, he founded the renowned Neo-Avant-Garde group, the Pest Workshop, which printed multipliable graphics to democratise art. In addition to his publishing activities, he ran a free school for decades and organised exhibitions as the director of the Józsefváros Gallery. He received the Munkácsy Prize in 1985 and the Kossuth Prize in 2008. He has been teaching at the Hungarian University of Applied Arts since 1989. In 2016, he was elected as a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts. His works can be seen in significant local and international museum collections such as the Ludwig Museum, the Hungarian National Gallery, the Albertina in Vienna, the Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum in Graz, Haus Konstruktiv (The Foundation for Constructive and Concrete Art) in Zurich and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, as well as important national and international private collections. Zita Sárvári

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