In 2008 the Hungarian national collections are holding major scholarly exhibitions to commemorate the 550th anniversary of Matthias Hunyadi’s accession to the throne. The different exhibitions complement each other thematically and chronologically, giving visitors a comprehensive picture of Renaissance culture in 15th century Hungary.
The national library is showing the beginnings of Humanism in Hungary up to the end of the 1470s. The exhibition in the National Széchényi Library, which has the biggest collection in Hungary of written sources of Hungarian mediaeval and Renaissance culture, is focused on book culture. The exhibition presents the beginnings of Humanism in Hungary, summing up the findings of earlier research.
With manuscripts preserved in Hungarian collections and others on loan from collections in Austria and Germany, together with other documentation, the exhibition attempts to reconstruct the original collection, pointing out the areas where questions still remain even after decades of research, such as the connection between the Vitéz codices and the Corvina Library. It presents the palace and studiolo in Esztergom to give an idea also of the bishop’s building activity. The essays to be included in the exhibition catalogue also examine these questions.

In his works Regős bridges Time and links it with old objects, details of which appear in his paintings, on his boxes and collages, or he uses the objects themselves (for example, radios) for his creations.
He does the same when he brings together objects from other cultures in our present environment, or does not use the objects for their original purpose. These are meetings of a special kind that give new content to motifs that in themselves convey a simple meaning.

Little Hungarian Quattrocento – contemporary artists on the dawn of the modern world
The theme can be observed in many contemporary artists, in the way they construct images and handle paint, even if it is not intentional. With its stylisation and strict construction the “new realism” that has been spreading rapidly in recent years can be said in a way to retrace the change and development that took place in painting in Florence in the fifteenth century. These paintings are characterised by strict perspective, precisely calculated composition and simplified portrayal.

Works by the following artists can be seen at the exhibition:
Csaba Ásztai, Daniella Bikácsy, Tibor Bráda, Ilona Deák, Gábor Dienes, Péter Földi, Zoltán Hús, Tamás Kárpáti, Tamás Vilmos Kovács, Éva Krajcsovics, János Lóránt, Judit Makó, Alexandra Nádas, Tamás Szabó, Miklós Szüts, László Tenk, Péter Ujházi, Dezső Váli, Erzsébet Vojnich

Lajos Csontó created mainly photo and video works in which the text also plays a part. The exhibition presents a further developed version of his photo-video work titled Parasite. The faces of people from different periods and peoples fade into each other, suggesting that the experience of the past and the influence of contacts with others is present at all times and in all individuals; no one exists alone, without influences or experiences. The full-size video work consists of 5 projected films and a series of photos in which the half-faces of strangers are pressed together to form whole faces. The bizarre thing about this is that it implies the intimacy of physical closeness, even though the whole point is that it brings complete strangers into physical contact with each other. As a result the finished work is more than simply the manipulation of photos.
Despite his youth, Lajos Csontó (born in 1964) was awarded the Munkácsy Prize in 2007. He had a big exhibition in the Szentendre Gallery in 2006. His works have been included several times in the list of best works and exhibitions of the previous year based on an evaluation by experts of exhibitions and published at the beginning of each year in Új Művészet (New Art).

“In my works I examine the basic problems of mankind. I am especially interested in the relationship of the individual and the environment, the society and the authorities and a whole series of related problems. My works are figural. I use intentionally simplified faces to “talk” about the given topic in a way that can be understood precisely, but at the same time allowing a number of interpretations of the complexity or absurdity of the problem and the seeming impossibility of solving it.”

The exhibition is about understanding, tolerance and coexistence. Within the works dialogues arise between the pairs of works created by the individual artists. Their theme is the meeting in time of different worlds – worldly and otherworldly cultures, people, objects and ages. For each work this means the connection of the discourse between them, which is intended to express knowledge and acceptance of the world.

The main theme for 2008 is the Renaissance; its influence is still felt today and inspires contemporary artists too.
In 2003, commissioned by the National Széchényi Library, with the participation of thirty-four tapestry artists, work began in the Buda Castle Tapestry Studio on the design and execution of the Corvin tapestry in honour of the famous library of the humanist King Matthias Hunyadi (Corvin) (1458–1490) and the Hungarian Renaissance. In the first phase of the planning, thirty-four independent designs were produced. The artists who participated in the designing also took part in the weaving; the groups of eight or nine artists took over from each other every two months or so. The exhibition presents a selection of the works of thirty-four artists.

Edit Balogh, Judit Baranya, Noémi Benedek, Beáta Bocz, Emese Csókás, Ildikó Dobrányi, Eta Erdélyi, Ibolya Hegyi, Zsófia Harmati, Ágnes Kecskés, Katalin Kiss, Eszter Kneisz, Péter Kovács, Katalin Fóris, Margit Köllő, AnnaMária Kőszegi, Kata Kuchta, Ida Lencsés, Katalin Martos, Indira Máder, Erzsébet Mészáros, Dalma Nagy, Ildikó Novák, Éva Nyerges, Eleonora Pasqualetti, Judit Pázmány, Richárd Rapaich, Éva Sipos, Gizella Solti, Verona Szabó, Mária Száraz, Nóra Tápai, Mária Vajda, Katalin Zelenák.

The exhibition of 100 enlarged photos of Transylvania printed on a special surface will be an exclusive attraction in and around the park and along the paths in front of the Hungarian Television building in Szabadság Square in Budapest’s 5th district.
The aim of the giant photo exhibition “100 faces of Transylvania” is to present traditionally multiethnic Transylvania through the cultural diversity that is clearly reflected in the different characters, architecture, material culture, natural and man-made environment and customs. We would like to show through these works of art that in 21st century Transylvania communities and individuals with a wide variety of cultures and traditions are setting a good example for everyone of how to coexist in peace despite differences.

István Kulinyi (1945, Innsbruck, Austria), winner of the Munkácsy Prize, an emblematic artist of his generation, produces graphic art, design and paintings. “Meeting with the art of hospitality” presents a side of István Kulinyi’s work rarely seen by the general public. The exhibition gives a glimpse into the world of big international hotels and the works of art selected for display in these hotels.

Right from the start an examination of the connections between the theoretical and practical aspects of art has been in the focus of János Megyik’s close to five decades of artistic activity. He studied painting in the Vienna Academy of Art (finally graduating as a glass painter), his art can be most closely related to sculpture and he has always been interested in architecture. In short: he thinks like a painter (his works are the results of his thinking on the genre of panel painting), he applies sculptural solutions (as demonstrated by his stick constructions and the iron plate works he has produced in recent years), and architecture has always been decisive for him (many works could be mentioned in this connection, from the model scale to the building-sculpture scale of the monumental Debrecen gateway).
János Megyik uses the traditional means of art as his building elements to create a refined, radical visual world. Two areas of these are worth special mention: perspective, as a means of creating form that has shaped our artistic vision for centuries, and thinking in terms of all branches of the arts which– as we have seen – spans the practical and theoretical limits of his art, from design through painting to architecture.
Gábor Sz. Szilágyi

Tradition and renewal in the court of King Matthias
King Matthias is perhaps the only figure in Hungarian history whose cult has been continuous since his death. The historical paintings and graphic art of 19th century Historicism, book and newspaper illustrations, designs for monuments and statues only continued what had been started by his contemporaries immediately after his death.
In 2008 we are celebrating the 550th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Matthias Corvin I (1458-90), perhaps the best known Hungarian historical figure throughout Europe; the same year also marks the 500th anniversary of the death in 1508 of King Matthias’ second wife, Queen Beatrice of Aragon. The Budapest History Museum intends to pay tribute to the king’s memory with an exhibition forming part of the 2008 Renaissance Year proclaimed by the Hungarian government and especially of the series of four exhibitions opening in mid-March on the theme of “King Matthias and the heritage of the Renaissance in Hungary”.

“We see, hear, taste and smell on the basis of models received from poets. The world appears to us through these models. The poets created these models, they did not copy something that was unmodelled and existed in the raw: if we see colours it is through Van Gogh and Kodak, if we hear sounds it is through Bach and rock, if we taste flavours they are mediated by Brillat-Savarin and the hamburger.” (Vilém Flusser/1920-1991). According to the earliest dimensionist (N+1/1912), Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) who dealt with the question of the fourth dimension “Taste is bad because it averts examination.”

The exhibition presents the Renaissance culture of eating from the time of King Matthias, through the traditions surviving in Transylvania, to the present. With colourful tableaux and original objects it guides visitors from images of the traditionalising competition held every year in Nagyszakácsi to today’s gastronomic festivals. With the help of interactive methods, visitors to the exhibition can share in the “Renaissance life experience”. The aim of the exhibition is to show the revival of gastronomic culture and encourage further similar aspirations.

Sándor Csutoros (1942-1989) was a member of the neo-avantgarde generation of artists who began their careers in the 1960s. His first sculptures were pseudo-archaic basalt figures, his characteristic mobiles reveal the influence of peasant material culture and plant forms. In the 1970s his art became non-figurative. His rows of glass and plastic spheres follow an internal rhythm to build their own independent structure that interprets space. In his Ja-Ko-Tánia series of sculptures cut out with a band-saw and his giant wooden structures in Zala County, he drew on folk ornamentation to express mythic contents.

From theatre fashion through fashion house to fashion theatre.
An unusual exhibition organised by the National Theatre History Museum and Institute, within the frame of the series of professional discussions launched in the autumn, in the Merlin InterNational Theatre Club.
It is a selection of work by recognised Hungarian costume and fashion designers, and of work by art and fashion school students.
It illustrates two cultural systems, the visual worlds of theatre and fashion: bringing to life dresses, costumes and body masks.

New Contemporary (Uj Kor Tars ) is an international group show of works by young and established artists using a wide variety of mediums.

The exhibition opens on March 20th, 2008 at 5 p.m.

At the opening performance: István Hajdu, art critic, editor

Zséda, singer



The exhibition closes on March 30th, 2008 at 5 p.m.

At the closing performance: Béla Szakcsi Lakatos and the Willy Lakatos Intersection Band, Sentiments, fashion show by Beatrix Joó and Andor Kovács

For more information please contact
Lena, Ilona Orosz, Lena & Roselli Gallery
1052 Budapest, Galamb utca 6.
e-mail: dr.orosz.i@enternet.hu, tel/fax: +36 1 318 4792

Beata Veszely, Artistic Director, Lena & Roselli Gallery
e-mail: veszelyb@gmail.com, mobil: +36 30 398 6538

The young artists exhibiting in the Studio Gallery have revived technologies no longer in everyday use, for creative and innovative purposes. Exhibitions changing daily, lectures and screenings will be held in the Studio’s community space to present the main stages in the five decades of the Studio’s history, as well as documents usually kept in stores and cupboards.

MÁRTON BARABÁS, painter and sculptor is participating in these exhibitions mainly with sculptures and installations. He focuses on temporarily filling the space with sculptural means which he achieves with endless loops of branches having a square cross-section, and spatial lines. In his works the winding tendrils begin to seem like spatial paradoxes.
The works of textile artist ERZSÉBET KATONA SZABÓ are characterised by networks, pierced surfaces and the bold use of space. Symbols, inspirations and memories appear in this space in the special, organic frame of leather that is sometimes amazingly soft, at other times taut. The textiles embodying space, timelessness and continuity convey a message to those who seek the secret, ordained ways of the soul.
Graphic artist ISTVÁN OROSZ uses traditional graphic techniques but his images show a world obeying its own laws that differs radically from the visible world. Illusory spaces, unusual perspectives, ambiguous figures. The surface may appear playful but anyone who tries to follow the artist down the steps of his dimensions can easily take a wrong turning and be lost forever.

Lajos Páll, celebrating his 70th anniversary this year, is Transylvania’s best known contemporary artist. He was born in 1938 in Korond where he has lived and worked all his life. With his exhibition we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Foundation for Transylvanian Art.
Lajos Páll works in two genres. He creates with pen and brush. His colourful paintings radiate a strong atmosphere and reveal a lyrical way of seeing things. He has also published twelve volumes of poetry. The first Fényimádók (Lovers of Light) appeared in 1970 and the most recent will be launched in the Vármegye Gallery during the exhibition.

The Inda Gallery explores the question of the passage between life and art, space and time, reality and fantasy, the objective and the subjective way of seeing. The title is symbolical and has several meanings. Firstly, it suggests that art is capable (is it really capable?) of creating a bridge to provide a passage between different existing and imaginary worlds for which at times and, in fact ever more frequently, it seems we are unable to find an adequate verbal description. Art can also express recognised and unspeakable problems that we do not put into words. Art can speak in a “language”, the language of images that does not require translation and can therefore link different worlds.
All three artists participating in the exhibition live in big cities where they witness “meetings of worlds” every day. Stoyanov, Bulgarian by nationality, lives in Vienna; his photo and video works deal with the concept of identity, the extremely “narrow path” that traces the scope for action in the individual’s life, the living space. Now “in the period of unlimited possibilities” this space is steadily shrinking; even if we imagine that its real extent is vast we are in fact walking over a thin membrane. Eszter Csurka works in a variety of genres; she does not favour any one mode of expression over the others and is equally at home in the worlds of film, performance, theatre and painting. Lajos Csontó’s photographs and videos often acquire meaning together with the texts written on them. His works expand space and time and with this, the living space of both artist and viewer.
Do we still have living space? Is the world expanding or shrinking? Do we live in imaginary worlds? The artists participating, Lajos Csontó, Eszter Csurka and Kamen Stoyanov, answer these questions with their works.

The Petőfi Literary Museum is celebrating the centenary of the launching of the literary journal Nyugat with a major exhibition. The exhibition looks back at the beginning and the birth of modern Hungarian literature and art with the help of literary documents, works of art, films and music. It shows how Nyugat, as one of the main driving forces of the aspirations for renewal in society and the arts, encouraged the reception of outstanding figures of European culture, the renewal of literature and the related arts in the spirit of modernisation. Besides showing the aspirations and works of the founding generation, visitors can see portraits of the writers Babits, Móricz, Karinthy, Lőrinc Szabó, Ernő Osvát, Miksa Fenyő and Aladár Schöpflin painted by József Rippl-Rónai in tribute to the significance of the journal.

In 2008 the Platán Gallery attached to the Polish Institute intends to refresh its exhibition programme with a project titled “Dialogue”. During the year exhibitions of “pairs” will be held where the works of a Hungarian and a Polish artist enter into a dialogue. The second exhibition in the “Dialogue” project is “Evolution of a painting”, where paintings by András Gál and Krzysztof Gliszczyński shown in the same space will attempt to hold a dialogue.

Boldizsár Szmrecsányi (known as Boldi), a young sculptor trained at the College of Fine Arts and master school, creates unusual and impressive works in marble and bronze. His works have won numerous Hungarian and international prizes and his public statues can be found in many places in the world.
One of his main aspirations is to bring out the hidden beauty in each block of stone with the simplest tools: chisel and hammer. When he creates a hand, a foot, a seated nude, a mother and child of an almost abstract form he is carrying on the tradition of Brancusi. His figures are often still recognisable, their heads are generally set on their bodies without necks and they often turn their faces upwards, as though they wanted to break away from earthly existence and also from themselves. There are many other possibilities inherent in the sculptures: for example the play of fine lines drawn on the foot of the perfectly rounded form, or a sphere placed in a bowl-like concave form.
Reproductions are not able to capture the full visual impression and especially the experience of touching the smoothly polished surface.
The exhibition will be open for a month in the Barabás Villa.

The main aim of the exhibition is to introduce the public of Hungary and Eastern Central Europe to the products created in the last decade and a half in painting, photography and other/more recent media in the Leipzig art scene, the heterogeneous works and spirit of the so-called “Leipzig school”, distinctively local in character but nevertheless universal in significance.
It also aims to give a more nuanced picture of the Leipzig contemporary art scene, to structure the picture formed of the works and initiatives and to interpret the concept of the Leipzig school through a selection of works and their arrangement that help to reinterpret them.
A further aim is to publish texts describing and interpreting the works (catalogue), interpreting the works of Leipzig artists creating in different media and forms of expression and placing them in the context of art history, to give a clearer and more nuanced picture of Leipzig art today.
The exhibition and series of events at the same time offer an opportunity to see the similarities and differences in the post-socialist art of two former socialist countries, to present characteristic initiatives and not least of all, to explore and show the causes and circumstances of the multicultural scope of Leipzig art.

Exhibitors:
Tilo Baumgärtel, Cornelia Bienschtock, Wolfram Ebersbach, Tim Eitel, Henriette Grahnert, Matthias Hoch, Martin Kobe, Tobias Lehner, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Maix Mayer, Ulf Puder, Neo Rauch, Arno Rink, Ricarda Roggan, Christoph Ruckhäberle, David Schnell, Annette Schröter, Julia Schmidt, Tilo Schulz, Matthias Weischer

A series of events (symposium, film programme, museum communication activities) organised in co-operation with the Budapest Goethe Institute, Videospace Budapest and the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts will be held in conjunction with the exhibition.