partnereink
SVÁBY, Lajos
SVÁBY, Lajos
painter
(4 Febr. 1935, Abádszalók) 1954–1960: College of Fine Arts, Budapest, masters: János Kméty and Bertalan Pór. 1963-1966: Derkovics scholarship; 1973: Munkácsy Award; 1985: Meritorious Artist Award; 1994: Kossuth Award. In the year of 2000 he received the Magyar Művészetért 2000 (Hungarian Art 2000) Award. He taught at the College of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1975, of which, from 1990 to 1991 he was the commissioned- and from 1991 to 1995 the elected and appointed Rector. In 1995 he was conferred the honorary degree of the University of Kingston. Between 1963 and 1965 he worked in Dunaújváros, and resides in Budapest since 1965. His early works were produced somewhere along the border of monochrome painting. At his exhibition held in 1967 he displayed works varying in blue, gray and almost black colors. Both the work itself and its title Változás /Change/ of 1969, formulate the processes taking place in the painting of the era; this was his first strident, colorful work. Characteristic of his works prepared during this period is the use of strong colors, dark almost black backgrounds and indefinable spaces (e.g.: Kialakulás /Formation/, 1970). Sváby often builds from art historic references. The work entitled Izsák feláldozása /The Sacrifice of Isaac/ (1971) recalls the biblical theme of the father sacrificing his son. The color scale and method of paint usage typical to this day of Sváby’s works evolved during the following years: the usage of warm, strongly complementary contrasts, passionate lines, and contours, and energetic factures. This technique recalls the works of the pre-expressionists at the turn of 19th and 20th Century such as Ensorra and Munch, while the structuring of his images may be brought into relation with the so called Vadak (Untamed) Group, especially Matisse. The usage of clear tube colors, and almost unmixed paint, which he took onto the canvas in layers, many times with a pouring technique, may be understood from these influences (e.g.: Az expresszionista paradicsomban /In the Expressionist Eden/, 1972). Background elements appear in his work entitled Örkény István arcképe (The portrait of István Örkény) prepared in 1975, portraying the writer in a very shortened manner, closed into a confined box area. This space structuring is characteristic of Sváby to the present day. An extreme example of this is his work entitled Alagútban /Within a Tunnel/ (1979), where the self-portrait of the artist is almost completely disfigured in accordance with the requirements of a close-up frontal image. From the 1980’s he discontinued the usage of closed-in space structuring, and placed his figures into landscapes. Celebrations, happiness, and life lead in a covetous manner gain significance among his themes. He formulates these, seemingly political themes, as attitudes towards life. Sváby regarded painting a language, through which he searched for answers to the questions of his era. He only evaluated topics such as the importance of identity, and affiliation through the ‘screen’ of painting, and did not hold these issues significant in any other respect. His stout, uncovered, naked, erotic, and strident female figures often shock the viewer with their excessive closeness and intimacy. Statures disfigured by sharp, pop art like, hyperrealist cuttings often hang off the canvas in even his earliest works. In his work entitled Zárt Tér /Closed Space/ (1982), the plane of the painting itself severs the scene: the hands of men stroke a lustful female figure, however the bodies of the men cannot be seen. The portrayal of hands may refer to Creation, while the isolation of the figure may be interpreted as the representation of the uniqueness of Hungarian Culture. Among his earlier works the piece entitled Odüsszeusz távol Penelopétől /Odysseus far from Penelope/ (1971) may be brought into parallel with Closed Space in the prior work, however, the figure is not so much alone. Movement, theatrics, rebellion, and revolt are almost always present in the work of Sváby. He often prepared portraits of writers and incorporated a number of biblical and mythological themes into his works. His works usually portray human relations, often disfiguring those to the level of the grotesque. Even though Sváby dealt with art criticism and writing, he wished to remain present in his own era, and was capable of representing his inner tensions through his painting. His pastel works, which appeared around 1980, showed much more tangible perspectives, while his drawings portrayed a sense of timelessness and the absence of space. He built up his series of drawings entitled Genezis /Genesis/ (1989) from a crammed grouping of plants and human figures.
One-Man Shows:
1967 • Gallery of the Television [with Miklós Melocco], Műcsarnok Chamber Room, Budapest (cat.)
1972 • Műcsarnok, Budapest (collect., cat.)
1973 • Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest [with Miklós Melocco]
1975 • Uitz Hall, Dunaújváros (HU)
1976 • Community Centre, Kecskemét (HU)
1977 • Műcsarnok, Budapest (collect., cat.) • Gallery of Miskolc, Miskolc
1978 • Székesfehérvár (HU) • Veszprém (HU)
1980 • Gallery of Szolnok, Szolnok (collect., cat.) • Gallery of Hatvan, Hatvan (HU)
1983 • Hotel Interpress Gallery, Siófok-Balatonszéplak (HU) • Museum of Tihany, Tihany (HU) (cat.) • Town Hall, Abádszalók (HU)
1984 • Ernst Museum, Budapest (collect., cat.) • Museum of Balaton, Keszthely (HU)
1985 • Gallery of Ferenc Móra Museum, Szeged (HU) • House of Hungarian Culture, Berlin
1987 • Gallery of Szombathely, Szombathely (HU)
1989 • Csontváry Hall, Pécs (HU) • Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest
1994 • Körmendi Gallery, Budapest • Uitz Hall, Dunaújváros (HU)
1998 • Castle Museum, Simontornya (HU) • Castle Gallery, Veszprém (HU)
2001 • Hungarian Contemporary Gallery, Dunaszerdahely (SK) • Csók Gallery, Budapest [with Ernő Bujdosó, Róbert Csíkszentmihályi and Károly Vilhelm] • J. Somogyi Gallery [with Ernő Bujdosó, Gábor Mihályi, Ignác Kokas and Károly Vilhelm], Pápa (HU).
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1962 • 7. National Fine Art Exhibition of Miskolc, Ottó Herman Museum, Miskolc (HU)
1965-1967 • V-VII. National Exhibition of the Young Artists’ Studio Assotiation, Ernst Museum, Budapest
1972 • Contemporary Hungarian Art, Town Hall, Frederiksberg (DK)
1975 • Pictures and Sculptures from the Art of Three Decades, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
1978 • Exhibition of the Hungarian Fine and Applied Artists’ Federation, Műcsarnok, Budapest
1987 • Christie's auction, Amszterdam
1988 • Ungarische Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts von der Klassischen Moderne bis in die Gegenwart, Diessan am Ammersee (D)
1997 • Diaspora (and) Art, Jewish Museum, Budapest
1999 • Werke Ungarischer Kunst, Kulturzentrum, Oberschützen (A)
2000 • Millenial Exhibition, UNO’s Palace , Geneva
2001 • „Szék/Hely/Foglaló”, Headquarters of the Federation of Hungarian Fine and Applied Artists, Budapest • Twentieth Century Artists from the Collections of Contemporary Hungarian Writers, Lajos Kassák Museum, Budapest • Experience and Ideal, Royal Castle, Gödöllő (HU).
Works in Public Places:
panno [1968, oil, wallboard, Community Centre Mezőcsát (HU)]
mosaic (1974-1975, National Institute of Cardiology, Budapest)
sgraffito [1979-1980, School facade, Sárospatak (HU)]
sgraffito [1979-1980, building estate, Szeged-Mórahalom (HU) (with Tamás Fekete)].
Works in Public Collections:
János Damjanich Museum, Szolnok (HU)
Contemporary Hungarian Gallery, Dunaszerdahely (SK)
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest
József Rippl-Rónai Museum, Kaposvár (HU).
Publications:
A festő dolga, Mozgó Világ, 1980/4.
Csodalényekre van szükségünk? (Csontváry), Filmvilág, 1980/10.
Donald Kacsa mosolya, Mona Lisa búja, Filmvilág, 1982/1.
In memoriam Bernáth Aurél, Somogy megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, V., 1982
Megnyitó beszéd (Vásárhelyi Őszi Tárlat), Élet és Irodalom, 1996. november 22.
Bibliography:
Bolgár, K.: Melocco Miklós és ~ kiállítása (cat., intro., Műcsarnok, 1967)
Vadas, J.: ~-revízió, Élet és Irodalom, 1977. április 16.
Attalai, G.: Frissen (?) festve, avagy a magyar festészet új hulláma és ~ kiállítása, Művészet, 1984/12.
Egri, M.: A ~-művek világa (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Örkény, I.: A lázadó ember (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Székely, A.: Egy megkésett "felfedezés" (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Szabó, I.: A ~-filmről, elfogultan (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Szabó, E.: "~-kúra" (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Egri, M.: ~, Budapest, 1987
Szász, I.: ~, Playboy, 1992/8.
Vadas, J.: Vigyor a Paradicsomból, Élet és Irodalom, 1994. november 12.
Egri, M.: ~, Budapest, 1995
Mojzer, M.: Csend és kiáltás között, Új Művészet, 1995/3.
Sinkó, I.: A magányos mozgalmár, Új Művészet, 1995/3.
Antall, I.: ~ expresszivitása, Magyar Napló, 1995/11.
Films, Radio:
~ (Neményi, F.), 1977
Kenessei, A.: Beszélgetés ~sal, Kossuth Rádió, 1980. augusztus 28.
painter
(4 Febr. 1935, Abádszalók) 1954–1960: College of Fine Arts, Budapest, masters: János Kméty and Bertalan Pór. 1963-1966: Derkovics scholarship; 1973: Munkácsy Award; 1985: Meritorious Artist Award; 1994: Kossuth Award. In the year of 2000 he received the Magyar Művészetért 2000 (Hungarian Art 2000) Award. He taught at the College of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1975, of which, from 1990 to 1991 he was the commissioned- and from 1991 to 1995 the elected and appointed Rector. In 1995 he was conferred the honorary degree of the University of Kingston. Between 1963 and 1965 he worked in Dunaújváros, and resides in Budapest since 1965. His early works were produced somewhere along the border of monochrome painting. At his exhibition held in 1967 he displayed works varying in blue, gray and almost black colors. Both the work itself and its title Változás /Change/ of 1969, formulate the processes taking place in the painting of the era; this was his first strident, colorful work. Characteristic of his works prepared during this period is the use of strong colors, dark almost black backgrounds and indefinable spaces (e.g.: Kialakulás /Formation/, 1970). Sváby often builds from art historic references. The work entitled Izsák feláldozása /The Sacrifice of Isaac/ (1971) recalls the biblical theme of the father sacrificing his son. The color scale and method of paint usage typical to this day of Sváby’s works evolved during the following years: the usage of warm, strongly complementary contrasts, passionate lines, and contours, and energetic factures. This technique recalls the works of the pre-expressionists at the turn of 19th and 20th Century such as Ensorra and Munch, while the structuring of his images may be brought into relation with the so called Vadak (Untamed) Group, especially Matisse. The usage of clear tube colors, and almost unmixed paint, which he took onto the canvas in layers, many times with a pouring technique, may be understood from these influences (e.g.: Az expresszionista paradicsomban /In the Expressionist Eden/, 1972). Background elements appear in his work entitled Örkény István arcképe (The portrait of István Örkény) prepared in 1975, portraying the writer in a very shortened manner, closed into a confined box area. This space structuring is characteristic of Sváby to the present day. An extreme example of this is his work entitled Alagútban /Within a Tunnel/ (1979), where the self-portrait of the artist is almost completely disfigured in accordance with the requirements of a close-up frontal image. From the 1980’s he discontinued the usage of closed-in space structuring, and placed his figures into landscapes. Celebrations, happiness, and life lead in a covetous manner gain significance among his themes. He formulates these, seemingly political themes, as attitudes towards life. Sváby regarded painting a language, through which he searched for answers to the questions of his era. He only evaluated topics such as the importance of identity, and affiliation through the ‘screen’ of painting, and did not hold these issues significant in any other respect. His stout, uncovered, naked, erotic, and strident female figures often shock the viewer with their excessive closeness and intimacy. Statures disfigured by sharp, pop art like, hyperrealist cuttings often hang off the canvas in even his earliest works. In his work entitled Zárt Tér /Closed Space/ (1982), the plane of the painting itself severs the scene: the hands of men stroke a lustful female figure, however the bodies of the men cannot be seen. The portrayal of hands may refer to Creation, while the isolation of the figure may be interpreted as the representation of the uniqueness of Hungarian Culture. Among his earlier works the piece entitled Odüsszeusz távol Penelopétől /Odysseus far from Penelope/ (1971) may be brought into parallel with Closed Space in the prior work, however, the figure is not so much alone. Movement, theatrics, rebellion, and revolt are almost always present in the work of Sváby. He often prepared portraits of writers and incorporated a number of biblical and mythological themes into his works. His works usually portray human relations, often disfiguring those to the level of the grotesque. Even though Sváby dealt with art criticism and writing, he wished to remain present in his own era, and was capable of representing his inner tensions through his painting. His pastel works, which appeared around 1980, showed much more tangible perspectives, while his drawings portrayed a sense of timelessness and the absence of space. He built up his series of drawings entitled Genezis /Genesis/ (1989) from a crammed grouping of plants and human figures.
One-Man Shows:
1967 • Gallery of the Television [with Miklós Melocco], Műcsarnok Chamber Room, Budapest (cat.)
1972 • Műcsarnok, Budapest (collect., cat.)
1973 • Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest [with Miklós Melocco]
1975 • Uitz Hall, Dunaújváros (HU)
1976 • Community Centre, Kecskemét (HU)
1977 • Műcsarnok, Budapest (collect., cat.) • Gallery of Miskolc, Miskolc
1978 • Székesfehérvár (HU) • Veszprém (HU)
1980 • Gallery of Szolnok, Szolnok (collect., cat.) • Gallery of Hatvan, Hatvan (HU)
1983 • Hotel Interpress Gallery, Siófok-Balatonszéplak (HU) • Museum of Tihany, Tihany (HU) (cat.) • Town Hall, Abádszalók (HU)
1984 • Ernst Museum, Budapest (collect., cat.) • Museum of Balaton, Keszthely (HU)
1985 • Gallery of Ferenc Móra Museum, Szeged (HU) • House of Hungarian Culture, Berlin
1987 • Gallery of Szombathely, Szombathely (HU)
1989 • Csontváry Hall, Pécs (HU) • Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest
1994 • Körmendi Gallery, Budapest • Uitz Hall, Dunaújváros (HU)
1998 • Castle Museum, Simontornya (HU) • Castle Gallery, Veszprém (HU)
2001 • Hungarian Contemporary Gallery, Dunaszerdahely (SK) • Csók Gallery, Budapest [with Ernő Bujdosó, Róbert Csíkszentmihályi and Károly Vilhelm] • J. Somogyi Gallery [with Ernő Bujdosó, Gábor Mihályi, Ignác Kokas and Károly Vilhelm], Pápa (HU).
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1962 • 7. National Fine Art Exhibition of Miskolc, Ottó Herman Museum, Miskolc (HU)
1965-1967 • V-VII. National Exhibition of the Young Artists’ Studio Assotiation, Ernst Museum, Budapest
1972 • Contemporary Hungarian Art, Town Hall, Frederiksberg (DK)
1975 • Pictures and Sculptures from the Art of Three Decades, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
1978 • Exhibition of the Hungarian Fine and Applied Artists’ Federation, Műcsarnok, Budapest
1987 • Christie's auction, Amszterdam
1988 • Ungarische Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts von der Klassischen Moderne bis in die Gegenwart, Diessan am Ammersee (D)
1997 • Diaspora (and) Art, Jewish Museum, Budapest
1999 • Werke Ungarischer Kunst, Kulturzentrum, Oberschützen (A)
2000 • Millenial Exhibition, UNO’s Palace , Geneva
2001 • „Szék/Hely/Foglaló”, Headquarters of the Federation of Hungarian Fine and Applied Artists, Budapest • Twentieth Century Artists from the Collections of Contemporary Hungarian Writers, Lajos Kassák Museum, Budapest • Experience and Ideal, Royal Castle, Gödöllő (HU).
Works in Public Places:
panno [1968, oil, wallboard, Community Centre Mezőcsát (HU)]
mosaic (1974-1975, National Institute of Cardiology, Budapest)
sgraffito [1979-1980, School facade, Sárospatak (HU)]
sgraffito [1979-1980, building estate, Szeged-Mórahalom (HU) (with Tamás Fekete)].
Works in Public Collections:
János Damjanich Museum, Szolnok (HU)
Contemporary Hungarian Gallery, Dunaszerdahely (SK)
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest
József Rippl-Rónai Museum, Kaposvár (HU).
Publications:
A festő dolga, Mozgó Világ, 1980/4.
Csodalényekre van szükségünk? (Csontváry), Filmvilág, 1980/10.
Donald Kacsa mosolya, Mona Lisa búja, Filmvilág, 1982/1.
In memoriam Bernáth Aurél, Somogy megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, V., 1982
Megnyitó beszéd (Vásárhelyi Őszi Tárlat), Élet és Irodalom, 1996. november 22.
Bibliography:
Bolgár, K.: Melocco Miklós és ~ kiállítása (cat., intro., Műcsarnok, 1967)
Vadas, J.: ~-revízió, Élet és Irodalom, 1977. április 16.
Attalai, G.: Frissen (?) festve, avagy a magyar festészet új hulláma és ~ kiállítása, Művészet, 1984/12.
Egri, M.: A ~-művek világa (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Örkény, I.: A lázadó ember (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Székely, A.: Egy megkésett "felfedezés" (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Szabó, I.: A ~-filmről, elfogultan (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Szabó, E.: "~-kúra" (cat., intro., Ernst Museum, 1984)
Egri, M.: ~, Budapest, 1987
Szász, I.: ~, Playboy, 1992/8.
Vadas, J.: Vigyor a Paradicsomból, Élet és Irodalom, 1994. november 12.
Egri, M.: ~, Budapest, 1995
Mojzer, M.: Csend és kiáltás között, Új Művészet, 1995/3.
Sinkó, I.: A magányos mozgalmár, Új Művészet, 1995/3.
Antall, I.: ~ expresszivitása, Magyar Napló, 1995/11.
Films, Radio:
~ (Neményi, F.), 1977
Kenessei, A.: Beszélgetés ~sal, Kossuth Rádió, 1980. augusztus 28.
