TROMBITÁS, Tamás
painter, sculptor
(21 March, 1952, Budapest –)
1972–1978 College of Fine Arts, masters: György Kádár, Ignác Kokas, János Blaski. From 1979 to 1980 he lived in Békéscsaba then in Budapest, since 1991 he has been living in Szentbékál. Between 1988 and 1996 he was a teacher at the College of Technical Arts in Budapest. From 1982 to 1984 he was the holder of the Derkvovics Scholarship; in 2003 he received the Munkácsy Award. He participated in the work of the Creative Textile Arts Camp of Velem, the Creative Steel-sculpturing Camp of Dunaújváros, and the Creative Camp of Győr. Trombitás, from the beginning of the 1980’s, was the devoted follower of the style of abstract geometric representation in graphics, painting, metal-works, light formation, and installations. The “evolutional line” of his works strings from the picture architecture of Kassák, through the neo-avant-garde movement present in Hungary in the late 1960’s. He was interested in the study of geometry and the modulation of it in a given space, without the orthodoxy of the disciples of radical geometric movements. Simple geometric forms such as prisms, pyramids, cubes, and cones constituted the main characters of his works; he depicted the relationship between these in both a two- and three-dimensional manner. His tools of depiction are minimalists: he places the forms into “empty” spaces, a single contour defines the figures, Turányi is nevertheless, able to thus produce virtual spaces. The spectacle, from a painting perceptional standpoint, if one is to reckon strictly, is “poor”, their essence is not so much of painting, rather of the system of spatial relations. Likewise from the beginning of the 1980’s, he engaged neon, as a pictorial and space-forming device. He produced a number of light installations during the middle of the 1980’s, which were placed in natural surroundings. The use of neon is primarily metropolitan (from advertisement signs to interior disco lighting), Trombitás, in a contradictory manner, erected his neon geometric forms in forests and meadows. He also had a conjoining with postmodern ideas: a strong draw towards mystic, historical, cult, and symbolic localities. His Fényinstaláció /Light Installation/ was produced in Velem in 1986. The scene was an archaeological site from the bronze age. He hung a 2-meter per 2-meter neon square in the forest at the sight of the bronze-founder. Three planes interconnected with one another thus: the real natural surrounding (forest, trees), the neon object originating from our own civilization (a purple neon square), and the layer of consciousness (the archaeological site, the pit with its orderly earth layers, uncovering the workplace of the man of the bronze age). The neon installation marks the contour of the geometric form; this method constitutes the junction point of his work produced in the 1990’s. From the middle of the 1980’s the majority of his works are consisted of statues produced by the combination of metal and neon materials. Lathed and discharged prisms, cones, circles, as well as metal, plastic, stones pieces, metal scraps, rough and worked (polished and burnished) surfaces interconnect with one another with an almost discretional naturalness. He produced such works in such a manner, that our sense that the game variability present in the Bauhaus style is upheld, the segments of which may be taken to pieces, and reassembled in an innumerable number of manners. This period of his was connected closely to the constructionist, supremacy based art history, however was much more independent and emotional. He often placed his geometric forms, almost as contrasts, into the middle of heaps of powdered metal or coal powder, and combines them with black nylon, thus resolving to some extent the cold and unnatural effect of the cornered sculptures. He continuously associates with these the element of light, with the help of the neon forms. During the 1990’s his attention drew more and more towards the world of the letter and calligraphy. Stylized, infinitely simplified golden letters appear upon his cubes. These mystic and mysterious signs are hieroglyphs without the calligraphy normally associated with them, they can be read out with some endeavor, and in fact form words, while their informational content has of no significance in relation to the work of art itself. The information, which the signs convey, is almost coded, and conveys much more a visual content then a contextual one. The light, the neon, and the sparkling symbolize spirituality, while the metal cubes and powdered metal represent the earthly values. This same theme: the conflicting pair of darkness and sparkling light is also formed upon his panel-paintings. The grand scale installation which was entered in the best exhibition of the Biennial of Venice, the La coesistenza dell' arte-n /The unification of art/, is one of his most significant works within this period of his. The golden letter, closed into square, appeared not only on his sculptures, but also in his graphics and paintings. Trombitás is the master of upholding a roaming state between different artistic forms, and additionally was a synthesizing personality. He therefore quite often united different artistic forms into one installation, organizing the space given for the works of art into a homogeneous one.
One-Man Shows:
1979 • Mátyás Jantyik Museum [with Anna Ignácz], Békés (HU) • Jókai Theatre, Békéscsaba (HU)
1981 • Stúdió Gallery, Budapest
1983 • FMK (Club of Young Artists), Budapest
1985 • Sculptor Garden of the Budapest Gallery, Budapest [with Enikő Szöllőssy] • FMK (Club of Young Artists), Budapest • Ernst Museum, Budapest (cat.)
1986 • Budapest Gallery Lajos street, Budapest (cat.) • Community Centre of Heves County, Eger (HU) • Galerie der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar, Esslingen
1993 • Biscuit and Wafer, Fészek Gallery, Budapest • Festetics Castle, Keszthely (HU) • Galerie Pedit, Innsbruck • János Xantus Museum, Győr (HU)
1994 • Galerie Gaudens Pedit, Lienz (A)
1996 • Municipal Picture Gallery, Budapest (cat.)
1998 • Gut Gasteil, Prigglitz [with Károly Klimó] (A)
1999 • European Investment Bank [with Magdalena Jetelova], Luxemburg • Municipal Gallery, Győr (HU) • Rácz Gallery, Budapest
2000 • Fészek Gallery, Budapest.
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1978 • Summer Exhibition, Debrecen (HU)
1979 • Exhibition of Alföld, Mihály Munkácsy Museum, Békéscsaba (HU) • Studio '79, Gallery of Pécs, Pécs • Placard Biennial, Lahti (FIN)
1980 • Exhibition of Alföld, Mihály Munkácsy Museum, Békéscsaba (HU) • Studio '80, Műcsarnok, Budapest • Winter Exhibition, Gallery of Miskolc, Miskolc (HU)
1981 • Card, Gallery of Józsefváros, Budapest • Architecture and Fine Arts, Gallery of Miskolc, Miskolc • Steel Sculpture, Uitz Terem, Dunaújváros (HU) • Opening, Fészek Gallery, Budapest • Workshop of Pest, Gallery of Pécs, Pécs (HU) • Art Expo, Bari (OL) • Young Hungarian Graphic Art, wandering exhibition (FIN) • Constructivist Heritage, University of Toronto (CA)
1982 • Space and Colour, Gallery of Józsefváros, Budapest • National Summer Exhibition, Műcsarnok, Budapest • Tradition I., Pataky Gallery, Budapest • Tradition II., Budapest Gallery Lajos street, Budapest • Animation and Fine Arts, Ferenc Erdei Community Centre, Kecskemét (HU) • Studio '82, Műcsarnok, Budapest • Creation and its components [with Imre Bak and János Fajó], Gallery of Józsefváros, Budapest • International Biennial of Graphic Art, Bilbao • 10 Hungarian Artists, San Carlo G., Naples • New Trends in the Contemporary Hungarian Graphic Art, Zsolna, Brünn, Prague
1983 • VIII. National Biennial of Small Sculpture, Gallery of Pécs, Pécs (HU) • Contemporary Hungarian Graphic Art, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest • Steel Sculpture, Uitz Terem, Dunaújváros (HU) • Studio '83, Ernst Museum, Budapest • Achivements of Symposia I., Műcsarnok and Hungexpo, Budapest • Exhibition of the 14th Artist’s Colony of Győr, Municipal Library, Győr (HU) • Textile Workshop of Velem, Velem (HU) • Contemporary Hungarian Small Sculpture, National Library, Madrid • Foundation Gulbenkian, Lisboa
1984 • Contact, Fészek Gallery, Budapest • IV. Photo Biennial of Estergom, Castle Museum, Esztergom (HU) • Achivements of Symposia II., Műcsarnok, Budapest • Studio '84, Hungexpo, Budapest
1985 • Selection from the Works of the Steel Sculpture Artists’ Colony of Dunaújváros, (1974-84), Fészek Gallery, Budapest • Steel Sculpture '85, Uitz Terem, Dunaújváros (HU) • Studio '85, Ernst Museum, Budapest • Youth Drawing Triennal of Nurenberg , Nurenberg
1986 • Light years, Künstlerhaus, Vienna • Digitart, Museum of fine Arts, Budapest • 13 Hungarian Artists , Taidekaskus Maltinranta, Tampere • Magical Pictures, Budapest Gallery Lajos street, Budapest • Contemporary Hungarian Small Sculpture, Toronto • 7. International Art Festival, International Art Center, Kyoto
1987 • Steel Sculpture, Uitz Terem, Dunaújváros (HU) • 50×70, Fészek Gallery, Budapest
1988 • Sculpture Republic, Messepalast, Vienna • Live Textile, Műcsarnok, Budapest • Sculpture Republic, Műcsarnok, Edinburgh, Southampton, Glasgow, London • Picture and Space, gallery of Pécs, Pécs (HU) • Hungarian Painting (1945-1988), National Gallery, Prague, Pozsony • T.É.R. / S.P.A.C.E., Gallery of Pécs, Pécs (HU)
1990 • Kunstszene Budapest 1990 [with Bak, Birkás, Nádler and Samu] Künstlerhaus, Salzburg • Triumph – The Inhabitable, Charlottenborg, Koppenhága, Műcsarnok, Budapest • Architectonic Thinking Today, Műcsarnok, Budapest • 13 Hungarian Artists, Zacheta G. Warsaw
1991 • Metaphor, Gallery of Pécs, Pécs (HU) • Metaphor, Kennesaw, Atlanta, Georgia (USA) • Positions (Hungarian Art in the 90s) Künstlerwerkstatt Lothringerstraße, Munich • Zentripedal, Minoritenkirche, Krems-Stein (A) • 8×2 from the 7th Trigon, Künstlerhaus und Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz • Contemporary Hungarian Art, Royal Hibernian Academy, Gallagher Gallery, Dublin • Contemporary Hungarian Art, Art Museum Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
1992 • Grenzenlos/Without Borders, Haus Ungarn, Berlin • 8×2 East and West (Trigon '91), Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau • Trigon '91, Manézs, Prague • Frontiera, Messepalast, Bolzano (CH) • Trigon '91, Specks Hof, Lipcse • The Alien is Beautiful, Barcsay Room, Budapest
1993 • Art Frankfurt, Galerie Pedit • Galerie Pedit, Lienz (A) • Coesistenza dell'arte, 45. Biennial of Venice , Venice
1994 • Budapest Art Expo '94, Hungexpo, Budapest • Dunaújváros Arts Festival, Dunaújváros (HU) • Nyomatok (Prints), Fészek Gallery, Budapest • „Piranéző”. Piranesi in Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest • The 80’s, Ernst Museum, Budapest • Több mint tíz/More Than Ten, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
1995 • Contemporary Hungarian Art in the Graphical Collection of the Albertina, Budapest Gallery, Budapest • Helyzetkép/Hungarian Sculpture, Műcsarnok, Budapest • La nuova Europa/A new Europe, Zitelle, Venice
1996 • Contemporary Art Exhibition of the Artaria Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest • Road to Arts, Gut Gasteil, Prigglitz (A) • The Myth - Memória História, Municipal Picture Gallery, Budapest
1997 • Oil/Canvas, Műcsarnok, Budapest
1998 • Interactes 6., Hungarian Academy, Rome • Hungarian Presence, Zacheta G., Warsaw • Hungarian Avant-Garde in the Twentieth Century, Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz, Linz
1999 • Fém jelzés/Metal signal, Műcsarnok, Budapest • Budapest-Berlin '99. The Art of the 90’s in Hungary, Akademic der Künste, Berlin
2000 • Open 2000, Venice Lido • Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition on the Lake of Citypark, Budapest.
Works in Public Places:
Sun Sculpture [chrome steel, 1987, Dunaújváros (HU)]
Fragments (Letters), (steel, 1999, European Investment Bank, Luxemburg).
Works in Public Collections:
Municipal Picture Gallery, Budapest
Museum of Contemporary Art / Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest.
Bibliography:
Sinkovits, P.: Az avantgárd manierista értékei, (cat., Ernst Museum, 1985)
Fábián, L.: A háromszög szentsége (cat., Budapest Gallery, 1986)
Fitz, P.: Más közelítés (cat., Budapest Gallery, 1986)
Hegyi, L.: Radical eclecticism. Hungarian art in the 80s and 90s (La coesistenza dell'arte, 1993)
Fitz, P.: ~ (cat., Municipal Picture Gallery, Budapest, 1996)
Parker, B.: Sculpture in the new Central Europe: Hungary, Sculpture Magazin, 1996/12.
Földényi F., L.: Párnaszobrok, Élet és Irodalom, 2000. január 6.
(Translation: Vladimir Végh)