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ATTALAI, Gábor
ATTALAI Gábor
artist in textile, industrial designer, graphic artist
(born Bp., 20th November 1934)
1958: MIF; his masters: Ernő Schubert, Béla Molnár. 1970: award of the Art Fund, 1. Wall- and space-textile B., Szhely; 1974: Contemporain award of Zágrábi G., IV. International Drawing Biennial, Rijeka; IV. International Printed Graphics Biennial, Bradford (II. prize); 1978: V. Wall- and Space-textile Biennial, Savaria M., Szhely; 1988: Munkácsy Award. He produces compositions of wall- and space-textile, household textiles, Gobelin tapestry, oil paintings, graphics, photos, photographic empressions and their documentation. Also creates his own conceptual works, installations, actions. He is a versatile, “free”, independent artist, who shapes and changes his techniques and genres freely. He studies the relation of work of art and theory, art and reality in the spirit of conceptualism, often through puns, too. The creator of „new-constructivist” (Aknai Tamás) pieces, he emphasizes the self-determination of the textile. He considers colour an equivalent expression of value with form. With his fleece sculptures he is one pioneer of the Hungarian spatial textile. Until the end of the ‘60s he searched for a sovereign form of expression which had its roots in Hungarian folk art (e.g. cushion from Kalotaszeg). He did this always with modern methods, which are, of course, faster than the classic ones, for example, based on his studies of the stitched sheepskin-coat method, he sewed woollen curls on a linen sheet, producing an effect similar to ‘cserge’ (special thick woollen blanket) but still original. His works of the ‘70s included land-art pieces (eg. on the stairs of the embankment, Snow drawing), fleece and strap sculptures. His pictures made of ripped pieces of fleece and hung from above, lean on their own weight due to the force of gravitation (the initial motif of his 1972 exhibition in Dorottya Street is, for instance, and not accidentally, the hung cow from Rembrandt’s picture Slaughterhouse). These works of art emerge from the level of the wall like embossments, and become sculptures, often with a pictorial effect. He also exhibits red fleece snakes and white hemp-ropes in these years. His objects, frequently evoking an op-art effect, give evidence of the correlation and change of relations of paint, colour, function, and colour-symbolism, and from a conceptual point of view, that of painting, sculpture and art. He is the follower of the legacy of Malevich (monochrome) and Duchamp (ready-mades). In his 1978 exhibition in Pécs he produces a combination of lost properties and red colour (as a colour and as a notion, too), and examines the changes called forth thereby, and the new meanings born in the new context. In the ‘80s he secures his relation to the genres of graphics and painting through his objects and compositions mostly in a tangentional way, rather on the level of thoughts. He is interested in the plasticity and mass of the contexts, and in the open relationship of the work of art with the personal and material environment. He examines the internal language of the material, of textile. His mind is occupied with the spatial expression of time, as well as the relation of photographs and distance, and the expressivity of silence. He produces so-called time-objects, time-stampings and time-relations. One-man shows: 1963: Petri Galla’s flat; Képcsarnok, Szeged; 1966: Modern Nordisk Konst G. [with Tibor Csiky], Göteborg; 1972: Fleeces, Dorottya Street. G.; 1974: Dorottya Street. G.; 1978: Red-y Made-s, Színház Square Library, Pécs; 1984: Vancouver houses, Helikon G. Selected group exhibitions:1969: Textile wall-picture '68 (organiser of the exhibition), Ernst M.; 1972: Household textile exhibition, IM; KKI Kt.; International Artist Cooperation G., Oldenburg; 1973: Veste Sagrada Organisacion Creativa, Rio de Janeiro; 1. Industrial Textile Art Biennial, Savaria M., Szhely; Trigon, Johanneum M., Graz; 1974: III. Wall- and Spatial textile Biennial, Savaria M., Szhely; New Reform G., Antwerpen; 1975: Jubilee exhibition of industrial design, Műcsarnok; 1976: Hungarian Miniature Textiles, IV. Wall- and Spatial textile B., Savaria M., Szhely; G. Banco, Brescia; 1977: G. Loa, Haarlem, NL; Hatvany L. M., Hatvan; III. Industrial Textile Art B., Savaria M., Szhely; Modern graphics, JPM, Pécs; Velem Textile Art Creative Workshop, Velem; Stadt M., Linz; 1978: International Exhibition of Industrial Design, Erfurt; Textile after textile, Town Council, Eger; 1980: Drawing, MNG; 1999: Date, Műcsarnok. Works in public collections: JPM, Modern Magyar Kt, Pécs; SZK, Szhely. Works in public places: Gobelin tapestry (Balatonszéplak, Holiday House for Journalists). Publications: Cube, square, net; Thoughts on the visual conceptual system of the 1970s; The relation of the artist and the critic, or the civil war without bloodshed; Trans-avantgarde, or the main tendency of the 80s; Marginal cases in fine art I–II., Mozgó Világ, 1981/10. Further reading: J. Frank: At ~’s, ÉS, 14th June 1969; ZS. Szenes: ~’s textiles, Ipari Műv., 1972/3.; J. Frank: ~, Műgyűjtő, 1972/3.; J. Frank: Studios made speak, Bp., 1975; Modern graphics, Pécs, 1976 (catalogue); L. Beke: ~, MŰV, May 1978; Vital art – the vitality of art. Talk with ~, MŰV, 1981/10.; Business card, MMA Treasury. Biographies, documents 1992– 94, Bp., 1995.
(Beke, Zsófia)
artist in textile, industrial designer, graphic artist
(born Bp., 20th November 1934)
1958: MIF; his masters: Ernő Schubert, Béla Molnár. 1970: award of the Art Fund, 1. Wall- and space-textile B., Szhely; 1974: Contemporain award of Zágrábi G., IV. International Drawing Biennial, Rijeka; IV. International Printed Graphics Biennial, Bradford (II. prize); 1978: V. Wall- and Space-textile Biennial, Savaria M., Szhely; 1988: Munkácsy Award. He produces compositions of wall- and space-textile, household textiles, Gobelin tapestry, oil paintings, graphics, photos, photographic empressions and their documentation. Also creates his own conceptual works, installations, actions. He is a versatile, “free”, independent artist, who shapes and changes his techniques and genres freely. He studies the relation of work of art and theory, art and reality in the spirit of conceptualism, often through puns, too. The creator of „new-constructivist” (Aknai Tamás) pieces, he emphasizes the self-determination of the textile. He considers colour an equivalent expression of value with form. With his fleece sculptures he is one pioneer of the Hungarian spatial textile. Until the end of the ‘60s he searched for a sovereign form of expression which had its roots in Hungarian folk art (e.g. cushion from Kalotaszeg). He did this always with modern methods, which are, of course, faster than the classic ones, for example, based on his studies of the stitched sheepskin-coat method, he sewed woollen curls on a linen sheet, producing an effect similar to ‘cserge’ (special thick woollen blanket) but still original. His works of the ‘70s included land-art pieces (eg. on the stairs of the embankment, Snow drawing), fleece and strap sculptures. His pictures made of ripped pieces of fleece and hung from above, lean on their own weight due to the force of gravitation (the initial motif of his 1972 exhibition in Dorottya Street is, for instance, and not accidentally, the hung cow from Rembrandt’s picture Slaughterhouse). These works of art emerge from the level of the wall like embossments, and become sculptures, often with a pictorial effect. He also exhibits red fleece snakes and white hemp-ropes in these years. His objects, frequently evoking an op-art effect, give evidence of the correlation and change of relations of paint, colour, function, and colour-symbolism, and from a conceptual point of view, that of painting, sculpture and art. He is the follower of the legacy of Malevich (monochrome) and Duchamp (ready-mades). In his 1978 exhibition in Pécs he produces a combination of lost properties and red colour (as a colour and as a notion, too), and examines the changes called forth thereby, and the new meanings born in the new context. In the ‘80s he secures his relation to the genres of graphics and painting through his objects and compositions mostly in a tangentional way, rather on the level of thoughts. He is interested in the plasticity and mass of the contexts, and in the open relationship of the work of art with the personal and material environment. He examines the internal language of the material, of textile. His mind is occupied with the spatial expression of time, as well as the relation of photographs and distance, and the expressivity of silence. He produces so-called time-objects, time-stampings and time-relations. One-man shows: 1963: Petri Galla’s flat; Képcsarnok, Szeged; 1966: Modern Nordisk Konst G. [with Tibor Csiky], Göteborg; 1972: Fleeces, Dorottya Street. G.; 1974: Dorottya Street. G.; 1978: Red-y Made-s, Színház Square Library, Pécs; 1984: Vancouver houses, Helikon G. Selected group exhibitions:1969: Textile wall-picture '68 (organiser of the exhibition), Ernst M.; 1972: Household textile exhibition, IM; KKI Kt.; International Artist Cooperation G., Oldenburg; 1973: Veste Sagrada Organisacion Creativa, Rio de Janeiro; 1. Industrial Textile Art Biennial, Savaria M., Szhely; Trigon, Johanneum M., Graz; 1974: III. Wall- and Spatial textile Biennial, Savaria M., Szhely; New Reform G., Antwerpen; 1975: Jubilee exhibition of industrial design, Műcsarnok; 1976: Hungarian Miniature Textiles, IV. Wall- and Spatial textile B., Savaria M., Szhely; G. Banco, Brescia; 1977: G. Loa, Haarlem, NL; Hatvany L. M., Hatvan; III. Industrial Textile Art B., Savaria M., Szhely; Modern graphics, JPM, Pécs; Velem Textile Art Creative Workshop, Velem; Stadt M., Linz; 1978: International Exhibition of Industrial Design, Erfurt; Textile after textile, Town Council, Eger; 1980: Drawing, MNG; 1999: Date, Műcsarnok. Works in public collections: JPM, Modern Magyar Kt, Pécs; SZK, Szhely. Works in public places: Gobelin tapestry (Balatonszéplak, Holiday House for Journalists). Publications: Cube, square, net; Thoughts on the visual conceptual system of the 1970s; The relation of the artist and the critic, or the civil war without bloodshed; Trans-avantgarde, or the main tendency of the 80s; Marginal cases in fine art I–II., Mozgó Világ, 1981/10. Further reading: J. Frank: At ~’s, ÉS, 14th June 1969; ZS. Szenes: ~’s textiles, Ipari Műv., 1972/3.; J. Frank: ~, Műgyűjtő, 1972/3.; J. Frank: Studios made speak, Bp., 1975; Modern graphics, Pécs, 1976 (catalogue); L. Beke: ~, MŰV, May 1978; Vital art – the vitality of art. Talk with ~, MŰV, 1981/10.; Business card, MMA Treasury. Biographies, documents 1992– 94, Bp., 1995.
(Beke, Zsófia)
