en Archívum - MNB Arts and Culture

„Our goal is to bring the collection closer to the people” – a conversation with Kinga Hamvai in the Hamu és Gyémánt magazine

Adminisztrátor — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 08:25:31 +0000

MNB Arts and Culture was created two and a half years ago, it takes care and manages the contemporary art collection realised by the Central Bank of Hungary. Hamu és Gyémánt interviewed the head of the division, Kinga Hamvai. In the article she tells us how the collection of 1,400 works of art started. She also gives an insight into its structure, operation and objectives, and explains the process of collecting. She also talks about the numerous international and national exhibitions, museum and institutional loans and art education programmes organised for the colleagues of the bank and for the general public.

You can read the article here.

A „Our goal is to bring the collection closer to the people” – a conversation with Kinga Hamvai in the Hamu és Gyémánt magazine bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

The art of concentration

Horváth Petra — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 12:20:07 +0000

The artworks of Judit Horváth Lóczi are also included in the exhibition of post-digital artists from the MNB collection at the Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin. This is not the only exhibition where we can meet the artist, fortunately, in recent years we have been able to follow her creative attitude and way of thinking through numerous group and solo exhibitions. What’s most interesting is that she is not afraid to fill the geometric abstract genre – which is usually interpreted as austere – with emotions and content associated with being a woman.

How can feelings be expressed in geometric abstract works? I’m thinking of your quarantine series, or the group exhibition on motherhood at the end of last year at the MANK gallery in Szentendre, as it is not very common to include motherhood in the world of abstraction. How did you find the way of expression that is so characteristic of you?

I found my style pretty quickly, or rather, when I found myself, it showed up in my work almost immediately. The key moment was when I dared to compress the problems of my life, the questions that interested me into a geometric abstract composition.

Obviously, this is not a clear-cut narrative interpretation, but I compress the message within me, keep drawing in my notebook until I end up with a geometric abstract composition. I can reverse where, from which thought or feeling the image originated and how it evolved by the end of the process, but the viewer doesn’t necessarily know what I started from. This provides a very exciting opportunity to discourse, and I often ask people what they think about the works. My first exhibition, where I strongly took up the theme of motherhood and the problems that go with it, was the exhibition titled New Era in 2018 at the Zsófi Faur Gallery.

I imagine it took a certain courage, because that’s not what we’re used to with geometric abstraction, which used to be a very masculine thing, and the women who ventured into that area tended to use their masculine side. What or who emboldened you to start? Have you found an artist you observed?

I spend a lot of time following the national and international art scene, regardless of style. I’m lucky to live in a time when I am able to keep up to date with contemporary artists from other countries with the aid of the Internet, so I follow the moves and exhibitions of artist such as Rana Begum, Rachel Whiteread and Marina Abramovic. Lately, I have been putting a lot of energy into getting to know – following the international trend – those female artists who were either only appreciated at the end of their lives or never really at all, who were creating almost in isolation. It is incredible to me that we have all accepted an art historical canon that has excluded women. Now we really have something to make up for!

When I look at these life journeys, I can draw a lot of courage from them. Just think of Carmen Herrera, who recently died at the age of 107 and for a long time was making her art quietly at home, creating fantastic things. She had no feedback of any kind until the age of 89.

But it’s not just women. I appreciate the career of Cezanne the same way, who was rather ridiculed and despised throughout his life, while today he is one of the most respected artists in the world. Visiting his studio and his home, one is struck by the stubborn consistency, patience and energy with which he painted throughout his life, although unfortunately he did not live to see his own success.

For a long time, geometric abstraction was a male preserve, no female experience was compressed into it. Do you agree?

People did look at me strangely at first, but I don’t believe in separating art into male and female art. I think there is only good art and bad art. My background in engineering and my good spatial vision allow me to switch between dimensions easily and quickly, both in drawing and in my head, and that’s what helps me a lot in this genre. From the beginning, I felt that less is more, and I tried to express my diverse message with as few tools as possible. An instinctive desire from within led me towards a purification, towards geometric abstraction. I knew that I didn’t want to paint figures, with glazed and delicate painting – which I can enjoy if someone else does it – it doesn’t feel right, and I don’t think this has anything to do with being a man or a woman. It actually really annoys me when people say, „Wow, what a lyrical picture of feminine colours”. Sometimes I get comments like that, and also feedback like „it looks as if a man did it”, and I’m not happy with that either. I simply don’t believe in it. You have to see a statue of Louise Nevelson, which is a totally masculine object. Nevelson has worked her whole life with a zeal that would make three men envious. It’s more a question of inner disposition, how you relate to life, how you can work, what tools you can use to express yourself.

How prolific an artist are you? I also think that this essential art requires a lot of brainwork. What is your working method

I’m constantly working, but it often manifests itself more in small drawings and internal work, so I always feel like there’s little work being done and I’m progressing slowly. This is also due to the technique. I work with acrylic paint, you have to apply a lot of layers to get a nice, uniform surface. I often use moulded canvas; it also takes time to make these. I have myself to thank for this lengthy workflow, but I don’t mind, because it gives me the opportunity to keep an idea in my head for a long time. It is actually self-therapy. By the end of the project, I am always in a different position compared to the original question, so I’m in a different place than when I posed it.

For me, it’s about compressing, not the composition or visuality, but the message behind the image. I believe that if you want to express something with a painting, and you have thoughts in your head all the while you are making it, then somehow the energy of those thoughts gets into the painting. Tamás Konok, whom I consider one of my most important masters, told me that what we painters do is magic because we create something from dead things, from the materials of the earth, from pigments, egg yolks and similar materials, which, thanks to our intervention, means much more in the end, almost becomes sacred, it awakens thoughts and raises questions. Art comes to life when we are able to do this, although obviously not every artist and not every painting can do it. It’s a difficult process and it takes a lot of mental energy to make this magic happen.

We’re sitting in your studio, a triptych in front of me, and I have to tell you that it’s like looking at an icon. It is probably not possible to get there without a long process of quieting down, of looking inwards.

The icon is also a compression. In past times, it was not the painter who invented what they wanted to paint, but was bound by strict rules about who could be portrayed and with what facial expression, posture, attributes, setting and use of colour. In fact, everything was prescribed for an icon painter, and each work told a complete story. I really like icons, and I enjoy looking at sacred art in general.

You also incorporate old objects found in nature or in the trash into your geometric abstract works. What is the background to this?

I have a certain respect for old objects. I find beauty in an old surface, abraded by human hands as it has served generations. Unfortunately, today we often throw them away to buy a plastic object instead, even though they have served us for a long time and were created by our ancestors. We have a family heritage of valuing and preserving everything. And artistically, it’s an immensely exciting task to incorporate an old object with a story and a strange shape into my own seemingly hyper-modern shapes and colours.

It can provide a contrast that I like to play with. It’s not easy to find that narrow middle ground where harmony between the two worlds is almost achieved, but where there is still a bit of a cheeky tension. It easily tips over one way or the other, and then I have to start all over again. Often these objects sit in the studio for years before I figure out the perfect solution to bring the different worlds together.

Which of your works have been included in the collection of the Central Bank of Hungary?

The collection bought some very important works of mine. For example, my thesis, which is also a triptych, several paintings from one of my most important series, the Karantén (Quarantine) series, and my large work Hommage á Vera Molnár, which is a mobile work of 27 pieces, so it can be put together in many different ways, like a puzzle or a mosaic. I feel that what was included in the collection gives a beautiful profile of my work so far, one can witness the trail I have been on.

How can you sum up why Vera Molnár is so important to you?

Vera Molnar is a role model for me because of her art and her human character. As a woman, she began to cultivate a very rigorous, austere art in the middle of the twentieth century as an absolute pioneer. Nobody knew anything about computers at that time, and they didn’t even have the courage to try to create art with them, because that’s not what computers were designed for. The idea appeals to me greatly when someone who travels to a foreign country as a wife, not only runs a household, but also tries to make a very unique journey as an artist, to make friends and to organise an artistic community around herself. We now know that many similar women were living in Paris at the time. They left as a diplomat’s wife or an artist’s wife, often using their husband’s name – even their name did not give them a separate identity – but they quietly created fantastic art, between two meals. These are stories that I always have great respect for, when someone humbly but tenaciously sticks to their own artistic attitude and creates work in a way that they can never be sure anyone will ever see. Yet does not give up. Vera Molnár also worked for decades without being known outside her own small circle.

And her art is both tough and rigorous, yet incredibly playful. This duality is close to me.

But it seems to me that your career has been accompanied by positive feedback from the very beginning. Is that your experience from the inside?

The support of Tamás Konok was very important, I kept going back to him for almost 15 years, we consulted, we discussed, he gave me both positive and negative criticism. The fact that such a world-class artist trusted me and pushed me forward made a huge impact. It was also determinant feedback when I received the Barcsay Prize. And the award of the Pollock-Krasner Scholarship was a milestone also, which is a New York scholarship awarded to several artists every year, regardless of gender or origin, completely outside the narrow and interest-driven Hungarian community.

Prizes are an incentive, but perhaps more important are the opportunities to exhibit, which mean I am being watched and I can show my ideas. I have been invited to three exciting group exhibitions in spring 2024. The MNB collection is taking an exhibition to Berlin, to the Collegium Hungaricum, exploring the visual world of the internet and post-internet, where I am part of a truly impressive contemporary roster. The second is an exhibition of selected works by Slovak-Hungarian artists in Kassa, where the theme is reinterpreting home, and the third is an abstract exhibition in a gallery in Budapest. And in the second half of the year, we will show a selection of my works on paper in Szentendre. The most valuable feedback for me is when the dialogue starts between my work and the audience.

A The art of concentration bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

The next exhibition of the contemporary art collection of the Central Bank of Hungary

Horváth Petra — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 14:41:10 +0000

The next exhibition of the contemporary art collection of the Central Bank of Hungary: “Code + Canvas” in the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin

The exhibition organised by MNB Arts and Culture titled “Code + Canvas. Post-digital works from the collection of the Central Bank of Hungary” is opening on 9 February, 2024 at the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (CHB)

The exhibition brought to life by a collaboration between MNB Arts and Culture and Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, presents a selection of contemporary artworks from the collection of the Central Bank of Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Bank – MNB), along the concept of the curators Kinga Hamvai and Zsuzska Petró.

The show, which opens on 9 February, can be seen until 22 March in the exhibition space of the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Dorotheenstraße.

Exhibited artists: Róbert Batykó, Martin Góth, Judit Horváth Lóczi, Bea Kusovszky, Márton Nemes, Tomasz Piars, Gergő Szinyova, Ádám Varga and Orsolya Lia Vető.

Code + Canvas: The window to the digital soul

The material containing works by emerging artists of Generation Y, focuses on one of the most influential artistic trends of recent years, the post-digital movement.

The members of this generation, also known as digital natives, a term popularised by Marc Prensky, are the ones who have literally been born into the world of computers, the internet and social media, which has not only changed their social relationships but also their perception of reality. In addition to the material world, the digital medium and the world of the internet have become their community space and natural visual environment, and as artists they are also inevitably inspired by this. For them, the digital world is not just a medium, it is one of their living spaces.

„Code + Canvas” offers an insight into the perception of reality and artistic practices of Generation Y, as well as a look at one of the most important art movements of recent years.

From bits to brushstrokes: Art of the post-digital age

The post-digital art movement allows artists to move freely between physical and digital space. Online reproductions of analogue artefacts are often disconnected not only from their spatiality, but also from their cultural and historical context. The resulting visual signals can be used and rearranged without any hierarchy or framework, and the digital reproduction of the artwork is therefore now just as important as the tangible object itself. The works of art, created with craftsmanship, requiring precision workmanship and lengthy experimentation, exist in this virtual framework as much as a work created with the digital tools. The artist-users „download” and create their visual language from this heterogeneous, chaotically swirling cloud as a reference network.

The artists featured in the exhibition employ different strategies to create a balance between the digital and analogue world. Some design their work using digital technology, in whole or in part, and then combine it with traditional imaging techniques. Others explore printing techniques, the reproducibility of images, the original and the copy, and the complex relationship between man and machine.

The nine artists on show not only offer an insight into the technological developments and challenges of the post-digital era, but also offer a diverse range of forms of expression. From the performative gestures of abstract expressionism to the diary-like representation of personal stories and biographical elements, all artistic practices contribute to the diversity and complexity of this emerging artistic movement.

A century at the interface of culture and science

The exhibition is presented by the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (CHB), which has hosted cultural and scientific exchanges between Hungary and Germany since 1924. The year 2024 also marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of both the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin and the Central Bank of Hungary.

Dr Márta Nagy, Head of the Institute, said: „The jubilee exhibition at CHB is a tribute to the institution’s enduring role as a catalyst for cultural exchange and innovation. For a hundred years, the CHB has been a constant arena for groundbreaking artistic and scientific dialogue.”

Dr. Kinga Hamvai, Head of MNB Arts and Culture and curator of the exhibition, stressed that: „Since the beginning of establishing the collection, the MNB has made it a priority to make the artworks in the collection visible to the general public, which we consider and treat as part of our national heritage. The Central Bank of Hungary, 100 years old this year, is proud of its patronage of the arts and its role in linking culture and the economy. We are particularly pleased with the coincidence of two centenary institutions have collaborated in the creation of this exhibition.”

In addition to the striking presence of post-digital visual culture (the aesthetics of flickering screens, perfect colour gradients, glitches), the exhibiting artists are all intrinsically linked to the traditions of art and painting.

Exhibition venue: Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Dorotheenstraße 12, 10117 Berlin

On view: between 9 February and 22 March 2024

Further information:

https://culture.hu/de/berlin

https://mnbarts.hu/en/home/

MNB Arts and Culture:

MNB Arts & Culture manages the contemporary art collection of the Central Bank of Hungary and one of its main objectives is to give it international visibility. The works are also made available digitally, and priority is given to presenting the material of the collection in thematic exhibitions from time to time, in Hungary and abroad. The exhibition titled „The Journey – János Fajó and the Pesti Műhely”, organised in collaboration with the Fajó Foundation, is currently at its seventh location in China.

The exhibition catalog is available HERE.

The MNB aims to make the collection accessible to the general public, and therefore, in parallel with its own exhibitions, it also offers a wider range of loans of artefacts.

Batykó Róbert: Clickbait, oil, canvas, 2019, 112×85,5 cm

A The next exhibition of the contemporary art collection of the Central Bank of Hungary bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

The next exhibition of the contemporary art collection of the Central Bank of Hungary

Horváth Petra — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 14:34:37 +0000

The next exhibition of the contemporary art collection of the Central Bank of Hungary: “Code + Canvas” in the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin

The show, which opens on 9 February, can be seen until 22 March in the exhibition space of the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Dorotheenstraße.

Exhibited artists: Róbert Batykó, Martin Góth, Judit Horváth Lóczi, Bea Kusovszky, Márton Nemes, Tomasz Piars, Gergő Szinyova, Ádám Varga and Orsolya Lia Vető.

Code + Canvas: The window to the digital soul

The material containing works by emerging artists of Generation Y, focuses on one of the most influential artistic trends of recent years, the post-digital movement.

„Code + Canvas” offers an insight into the perception of reality and artistic practices of Generation Y, as well as a look at one of the most important art movements of recent years.

From bits to brushstrokes: Art of the post-digital age

A century at the interface of culture and science

Exhibition venue: Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Dorotheenstraße 12, 10117 Berlin

On view: between 9 February and 22 March 2024

Further information:

https://culture.hu/de/berlin

https://mnbarts.hu/en/home/

MNB Arts and Culture:

The exhibition catalog is available HERE.

The MNB aims to make the collection accessible to the general public, and therefore, in parallel with its own exhibitions, it also offers a wider range of loans of artefacts.

Batykó Róbert: Clickbait, oil, canvas, 2019, 112×85,5 cm

A The next exhibition of the contemporary art collection of the Central Bank of Hungary bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

Vibrant colours, recurring motifs: The illustrious career of Ilona Keserü

Horváth Petra — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 14:00:22 +0000

Ilona Keserü, Kossuth and Munkácsy Prize-winning painter and graphic artist, an inevitable figure of Hungarian contemporary art, celebrated her 90th birthday in 2023. She is the artist who continues to influence generations of painters to this day. Her work has been recognised not only in Hungary but also internationally. The MNB collection also has several of her important works.

Ilona Keserü at the MNB Arts and Culture exhibition “Colour power”

The creations of Ilona Keserü at the MNB Arts and Culture exhibition “Colour power”

This year several exhibitions commemorated Ilona Keserü’s career spanning seventy years. In the spring, the Q Contemporary museum presented a retrospective exhibition titled ALL, which included a loan from the collection of Central Bank of Hungary also. Two exhibition venues, the Hungarian National Gallery and the Kisterem Gallery, have timed the opening of an exhibition of the artist’s works to coincide with her birthday, 29 November. The MNG (Hungarian National Gallery) presented an exhibition of her graphic oeuvre – works on paper, drawings and reproductions of her prints – while the gallery representing the artist presented a photographic exhibition commemorating the life and work of Ilona Keserü. This year, we have hardly had a day without an exhibition of Keserü.

The outstanding creator of the Hungarian neo-avant-garde, the only female artist in the Iparterv exhibitions, she was born in Pécs in 1933 and, according to the family legend, she has been drawing ever since she picked up a pencil at the age of one. She graduated from the Secondary School of Visual Arts (“Kisképző” as commonly called) in Budapest, but her most important master was always Ferenc Martyn, the influential artist of major stature from Pécs. She started taking drawing lessons from Martyn at the age of 13, stayed in contact with him throughout and gained a lot from his teaching, his way of thinking, his observational and constructive approach. She began her studies at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in 1952, first being accepted into the painting class of László Bencze, then after three years she transferred to István Szőnyi, who taught her fresco painting at the Epreskert, finally graduating in 1958.

A creation of Ilona Keserü at the MNB Arts and Culture exhibition titled Image-writing in Abu-Dhabi

In the early sixties, she was part of an inspiring intellectual community, she belonged to a group of friends that included the Hungarian literary figures Géza Ottlik and Dezső Tandori. From 1962, she spent a year in Rome, again with the help of friends, but in the end, she also received an Italian state scholarship. She was very much influenced by Italian culture, recording her impressions in drawings instead of photographs. Rome synthesised her experiences and helped her find her own artistic voice. Surprisingly, her first solo exhibition was not even in Hungary but in Rome, in 1963.

In the 1960s, Keserü’s process of observing and capturing the environment transformed her vision into an intuitive painting of colour and signs that expressed inner feelings. Her drawings during her first stay in Rome were still about capturing the visible world, but from the 1960s onwards she gradually turned her attention to abstraction. Her works soon began to show the wave lines that were so characteristic of her, which became fully developed in 1967. In that year she found a small Baroque-era cemetery in Balatonudvari, and the heart-shaped gravestones she saw there inspired perhaps the most distinctive motif of her oeuvre. The curved gravestone shape became a recurring iconic motif in her career, reappearing again and again in paintings, prints and, in the 1970s, in the form of embossed canvases. These lines became internal, and at the right moment the movement that created them was set in motion, as a kind of basic “Keserü-gesture”. The gravestone motif has travelled a grand journey, in the realistic and symbolic sense at the same time, from the cemetery at Balatonudvari to New York. In 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased a four-metre-wide hand-stitched tapestry inspired by the gravestones of Balatonudvari from Ilona Keserü.

The creations of Ilona Keserü at the MNB Arts and Culture exhibition titled “Folded – Unfolded”

In 1965 she began to create gesture paintings, which she numbered, and it was in the second half of the sixties that the colours began to take on a life of their own in her work. Eventually, structure and elementary movement appeared in the images, and all was transformed into some kind of symbolic system. In her diary, she mentioned that someone brought her eight types of red paint from Paris, and this is when her series of red paintings began, the first of which were praised by Lajos Kassák at the legendary Studio ’66 exhibition.

The creations of Ilona Keserü at the MNB Arts and Culture exhibition titled “Liquid Slices of Time”

The research of colours, which began in the late sixties, became Keserü’s artistic programme, but to this day it is an ongoing period her art, hence an integral part of the creative process. Ilona Keserü’s name is inextricably linked with the use of bright, vibrant colours, but there is a scientific, artistic experimentation behind this. Since the 1980s, she has been curious about the maximum colour intensity that can be extracted from paint, the spectral locus and the shades of rainbow colours, as well as the pure colours of refraction. The research of colour has branched out in many directions in recent decades, launching new chapters in her oeuvre. One of these directions is the eight-colour form creating a Möbius strip in space. Keserü combined the eternally intertwining Möbius strip with the infinite range of colours and used this colour-Möbius as a demonstration object in her teachings. Later she noticed the resonance between the colours of human skin and the colours of the rainbow when she watched her own hand holding the brush as she painted.

Ilona Keserü’s work at the Q Contemporary retrospective exhibition titled “MIND”

Later, she was interested in the so-called afterimages. The phenomenon we all know, the sight of light and shadow behind the closed eyelids, so named by the artist, is what we perceive when we close our eyes after the strong light effect. The visual illusions created by the sunshine, the experience of colour created by the afterimages, resulted in new beautiful paintings.

The culmination of colour research was the 1997 Scientific Conference on Art in Pécs, organised by Ilona Keserü and physicist György Grüner.

At the end of the seventies, she became a permanent collaborator in the Szentendre graphic workshop, where she made numerous silkscreen prints. Keserü learned screen-printing from András Mengyán, they were both members of the Pesti Műhely.

The creations of Ilona Keserü at the MNB Arts and Culture travelling exhibition titled “The Journey – János Fajó and the Pesti Műhely” in Beijing

Travel has always played an important role in Ilona Keserü’s life, and despite her extended stay in the 1960s, she did not return to Rome until 2001, but on her second visit she had another important experience. In the changed „Eternal City”, in search of her memories of nearly forty years ago, the newly restored Sistine Chapel had the strongest impact on her: the bright colours of the cangiante painting style set her off in a new direction. This renaissance technique of leaps between colours was the subject of several exhibitions in Keserü’s work in the 2000s.

The creations of Ilona Keserü at the MNB Arts and Culture travelling exhibition titled “The Journey – János Fajó and the Pesti Műhely” in Shanghai and Chongqing

Since the 2010s, she has been exploring the nature of the sound body, seeking to capture the mystical experience of musical sounds and to depict them as a visual artist, in the form of floating colours. At this point her life’s work is intertwined with that of her husband, László Vidovszky, composer and pianist. She was a music lover herself, spending almost every evening of her college years at concerts.

Ilona Keserü is still actively working today, and in the last two years she has included mathematics in the creation of her series of silkscreen prints at the Papírmalom graphic design workshop in Orfű. Her life’s work is not linear, but rather spiral, returning again and again to the artistic problems that hold her interest, rethinking but also retaining her earlier discoveries.

Ilona Keserü’ with her students András Ernszt and Bea Kusovszky (left) and Julia Fabényi (right), Director of the Ludwig Museum

Her teaching and training activities are also significant. She started teaching drawing at the Janus Pannonius University of Pécs in 1983, and in 1991 she became one of the founders of the Master School and Doctoral School of the Faculty of Arts in Pécs. She has also been a guest lecturer in England and France. When she gave her students assignments, she made it compulsory for herself to do them as well, so that she could show them alternative solutions, and so she knew exactly what creative process they were going through, and also to ease their anxiety.

Although she still has ties to Pécs, she has lived in the same apartment overlooking the Danube on the Belgrade quay for sixty years, looking at the view of the river the Gellért Hill on the opposite side.

Happy birthday, Ilona Keserü!

A Vibrant colours, recurring motifs: The illustrious career of Ilona Keserü bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

The first album of the MNB Arts and Culture collection has been published

Horváth Petra — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 08:21:54 +0000

The volume is titled „Zoom – 100 works from the collection” and includes short introductions of the artist in addition to reproductions.

From time to time, prestigious international banks publish exclusive selections presenting their art collections. These representative albums are unique pieces, containing the essence of the collection. The collection managed by the Central Bank of Hungary has now reached the joyous occasion of the completion of the first album, which showcases the “crème de la crème” of the art collection, the hundred finest works by thirty-three artists.

In addition to the reproductions, this exceptional album also includes some extra detailed photographs made with a rare technique that give a close-up view of the surface of the paintings, the materiality of the painting, the artists’ brushwork or the way the elements of the sculptures fit together. In this way, the publication evokes the artworks, so that the artistic exploration can be experienced while turning the pages.

The MNB considers to the tasks of social responsibility paramount, including the preservation of values and the promotion of art. As György Matolcsy, Govenor of the Central Bank of Hungary, voiced it in the foreword of the publication:

“The promotion of art and the preservation and conservation of artistic values are among high priority public matters. It is no coincidence that from the very beginning, the social responsibility programmes of the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) have given a prominent place – with ground-breaking results – to responsible value preservation activities that span several artistic disciplines. One important area of this is the visual arts, where our recent focus with the mission of creating and conserving values has been on contemporary works of art from Hungary. We have built and are building a collection that contains the treasures of the present – also addressing the future –, contemporary Hungarian works that are already world-famous or are at least worthy of world fame.”

The artworks of a high-quality corporate collection by definition convey a set of values and shape the identity of the community. The building of the Central Bank’s collection not only creates an unparalleled working environment for the Bank’s staff, but also enhances the reputation, and shows the cultural presence and the specifics of the contemporary art of our wider community, the nation, to the world.

The editor of the book was Gábor Rieder, art historian, who was also involved in the building of the collection. The “zoom concept” originated with him, which plays a prominent role in the visual world of the album also. On the one hand, it refers to the selection’s approach of narrowing it down to a hundred selected artworks, and on the other hand to the “macro photographs”, which allow the small, exquisite details to be seen and brought into focus.

In compiling the publication, the curators associated with the collection – Katalin Keserü, Julia Fabényi, Kinga Hamvai, Zsolt Petrányi, Gábor Rieder and Katalin Spengler – selected 33 artists from three categories: masters, mid-generation and emerging artists.

The graphic design and the editing of the album was the work of Adrien Császár, Nora Kaszanyi and de_form. The publication reflects the graphic design agency’s own credo of combining a unique design with a sophisticated visual concept, giving the catalogue of the works created by a wide range of artists a coherent and modern image. The detailed photos were taken by Dávid Biró.

The publication was produced by the MNB Arts and Culture, the division of the Central Bank of Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Bank) responsible for the management of its contemporary art collection.

A The first album of the MNB Arts and Culture collection has been published bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

Two paintings by Judit Reigl on display for the first time in a Hungarian museum

Horváth Petra — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 12:51:33 +0000

Two large-scale paintings by Judit Reigl are on loan from the collection realised by the Central Bank of Hungary at the Kunsthalle’s exhibition of her oeuvre. The first time the two works are on display in Hungary institute, in the show that runs until 28th of January. The MNB Arts and Culture aims to make the collection visible and accessible for the general public and will therefore ensure an even wider exposure through art loans in parallel with its own exhibitions. On 16th of November, Kinga Hamvai, Head of MNB Arts and Culture, gave a guided tour of the retrospective exhibition, which honours seven decades of artistic practice, presenting the work of Judit Reigl and highlighting the two paintings.

The two paintings, The Art of the Fugue (Unfolding), made in 1975 and 1976, are from the artist’s longest creative period, entitled Unfolding, which ran from 1973 to 1985. In this series, Judit Reigl’s interest turned away from picturing the human figure and towards the meditative aspect of the spatial and temporal dimension of the painterly gesture. On a canvas hung from above, while listening to music, she applied resin-based enamel paint to one side, which seeped through and left a trace on both sides, then formed monochrome or colour-field areas with acrylic paint on the front of the canvas. After the drying process, she cut and stretched her works. Music and painting met through the artist’s movements, using a rhythmic walk and continuous strokes to evoke the delicate visual effects on the painting. The final compositions were formed through the chemistry of chemicals meeting on painted surfaces on both sides.

A Two paintings by Judit Reigl on display for the first time in a Hungarian museum bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

MNB Arts and Culture also represented at the Art is Business Corporate Collections Conference

Horváth Petra — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 13:09:27 +0000

Three heads of major international corporate collections and representatives of several Hungarian corporate collections spoke at the first symposium. The one-day event addressed the state of corporate collections in Hungary, the corporate collection building efforts of business players and the HR, marketing and PR benefits of it.

In addition to prominent national guest of the field, Philippien Noordam, Head of Collections at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands and member of the Netherlands Association of Corporate Art Collections, Anne Vieth, Head of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection and Antje Hundhausen, Vice President Brand Experience at Deutsche Telekom, participated in the roundtable discussions.

Kinga Hamvai, Head of MNB Arts and Culture was an invited guest at a panel discussion moderated by strategic communications expert Péter Polgár with Delia Vékony, Artistic Director of HAB – Hungarian Art and Business and MBH Bank Art Foundation. During the discussion, the international context and presentation of the collection abroad was debated, including the ongoing traveling exhibition of the Pesti Workshop currently taking place in China. Also the educational and outreach programmes organised by MNB Arts and Culture for MNB employees and group exhibitions for the larger public were highlighted. The differences in corporate collection building between the Central Bank of Hungary and commercial banks were also mentioned where participants explored their artistic activities, opportunities and objectives.

A MNB Arts and Culture also represented at the Art is Business Corporate Collections Conference bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

The Central Bank of Hungary’s collection is now a member of the International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art

Horváth Petra — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 13:15:37 +0000

The contemporary art collection realised by the Central Bank of Hungary, after an extensive accreditation process became part of the International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art. The association as an affiliated organization of the ICOM, has members such as Banco de España or the European Central Bank Art Collection, from the commercial bank sector the well-known Deutsche Bank Collection or the Julius Baer Art Collection. The Central Bank of Hungary’s collection is the only member in the CEE region.

The International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art – IACCCA is an affiliated organization of the International Council of Museums – ICOM. The idea for the organization, which was launched in 2007, came from Jacqueline d’Amécourt, then curator of the Belgian Lhoist Collection, who set the goal of creating an organisation that would bring together the knowledge of corporate art collections. The IACCCA organises several events each year, from collection visits to workshops or webinars, these events enable members to meet and share their expertise.

The unique international network of curators sets management and organisation standards for corporate collections by establishing guidelines for professional practice and targets for the collections. Their mission is to acknowledge the importance of the companies’ commitment to art and increase awareness of the artistic and patrimonial value of each member’s collection. The collection managed by MNB Arts and Culture was chose not only for its content, but because the division places a strong emphasis on the collection’s exhibitions and museum education programmes to make it visible to the public. Guided tours and educational activities are arranged for employees, beside its institutional art loans and ever-expanding list of publications. Becoming a member, which is a major international professional recognition, contributes to the wider visibility of the collection, to expand its network, to share good practice with similar institutions and to presenting itself in professional forums.

For further information, please visit IACCCA’s website.

A The Central Bank of Hungary’s collection is now a member of the International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.

Fajó and the Pesti Workshop at the National Art Museum of China

Horváth Petra — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 09:11:00 +0000

An exhibition of works by the Pesti Workshop (a creative community of neo-avantgarde artists) and János Fajó arrived in Beijing on 14 October. The event is a collaboration between the Arts and Culture Division of MNB and the Fajó Foundation. The National Art Museum of China is the third stop in a series for the travelling exhibition that will run until the beginning of 2024, aiming to present the artistic community on a broad scale and thus expand Chinese-Hungarian cultural relations.

The first in a series of exhibitions titled The Journey – János Fajó and the Pesti Workshop, held in several Chinese venues, was presented at the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai in August 2023. The second stop of the exhibition was Nanchang, and presently – between 14 October and 26 October – the prestigious NAMOC (National Art Museum of China) in Beijing is hosting the exhibition, where several distinguished Hungarian and Chinese guests of honour are expected to attend the protocol event on 17 October. After Beijing, the large-scale travelling exhibition will be shown in several Chinese art institutions over the next six months.

About the venue

NAMOC – The National Art Museum of China, Beijing

NAMOC in Beijing is one of China’s leading art museums and houses one of China’s most important art collections. Construction began in 1958 and it opened to the public in 1963. The main building is covered with yellow glazed tiles and surrounded by corridors and pavilions, and its ancient Chinese roof structure is a reflection of the local traditional architectural style. With 21 exhibition halls on six floors, the building covers an area of more than 18,000 square metres. This includes the museum exhibition space of 6,660 square metres, the sculpture park of 3,000 square metres and the modern art collection, founded in 1995, with an area of 4,100 square metres.

The collection of the museum spans thousands of years of Chinese art, showcasing the country’s rich cultural heritage. NAMOC’s permanent exhibitions organise their art collections in several genres, including calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting and modern art, as well as Chinese folk art, artefact culture, works on paper and Chinese ceramics, which are all explored in depth in the permanent collection’s material. They also regularly organise temporary exhibitions showcasing the latest trends in contemporary Chinese and international art.

organiser: MNB Arts and Culture, Fajó Foundation

sponsor: Embassy of Hungary in Beijing, Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Centre Beijing

curator: Zita Sárvári

duration of the exhibition: 14. October – 26. October 2023

location: NAMOC – The National Art Museum of China, Beijing

1 Wusi Dajie, East District, Beijing, China, 100010

A Fajó and the Pesti Workshop at the National Art Museum of China bejegyzés először MNB Arts and Culture-én jelent meg.