28 June 2024, Friday, 18:10-18:45
EXHIBITION OPENING "DOBOZVILÁG" [BOX WORLD] is an exhibition of contemporary cardboard art from the collection of the First Hungarian Visual Library.
EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Katalin Albert, Miklós Ganczaugh, György Makky, Krisztina Nagy, László Pátyerkó, Péter Prutkay, György Szemadám, László T. Szabó, Péter Újházi, Sándor Zoltán
TO BE OPENED by Péter István Németh poet, literary historian
EXHIBITION DIRECTOR: Ákos Vörösváry, art collector and art director of the First Hungarian Visual Library.
OPEN: from 28 June 2024 to 31 March 2025 daily from 10am to 5pm. Admission is free.
PERMANENT EXHIBITION: Áron Gábor painter, Zsuzsa G. Heller sculptor-ceramic artist, Mária R. Törley sculptor, László T. Szabó visual artist, selection from the collection of the First Hungarian Visual Library.
Our permanent exhibitions are open all year round from 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is free.
BOX/ART
Cube- or cuboid-shaped objects, one side of which serves as a door that can be opened and closed. Their dual nature involves both hiding and revealing, but they can also permanently bury their contents. (...) The concept of "sealing" or "locking" suggests value, something valuable that needs to be kept locked away. This may evoke curiosity, the desire to peek inside, which can lead to either opening or peeking, trying to access the inner content somehow.
The entire structure, the frame, the system, the actual box exists solely to be the storage place and framework for that certain important inner something that is visible through the glass. (...) The gathering, holding together, enclosing, and protecting of things and goods in a "protected place" refers to ancient instincts, general human traits of seeking defense and security. (...) The artist's worldview, or aspects of it, are symbolically represented in the box art. Similarly, the interior of the box can model the creator's inner world. The duality of locking-unlocking and hiding-revealing expresses the relationship between the individual and society, the ambivalence of the artist's loneliness and openness.
Box-like artworks are categorized under object or object art and the genre of assemblage (the ensemble/collage of objects).
A significant portion of contemporary box art can be effectively approached from the perspective of space as a universal artistic problem. (...) In contemporary art, the box is undeniably a carrier of personal messages, an absolutely individual space. Its creation requires nothing more than a visual artist with the appropriate affinity, who combines the best virtues of the sculptor, painter, graphic artist, theater director, and dramaturg in service of the appropriate goal and theme. This way, everything finds its place at the highest possible standard, in the composition, and finally in the box. From then on, the box-space becomes a hermetically sealed, distinguished world due to its isolation. (...)
The first artist in art history known as a par excellence box artist was Joseph Cornell [1903–1972], whose works can be briefly described as poetic metaphors of memories. Another artist who practiced the specific form of the box was Louise Nevelson [1899–1988], who incorporated railing straps, chair and table legs, balusters, alloy pieces, and wooden blocks into compartments, assembling them into cabinet-like structures with a bas-relief effect.
Notable representatives of Hungarian box art: Endre Bálint, Júlia Szilágyi, Albert Kováts, Péter Ujházi, Róbert Swierkiewicz, El Kazovszkij, Péter Prutkay, György Szemadám, Sándor Zoltán, Zoltán Szultán Bogdándy.
This text is based on excerpts from studies by Albert Kováts and Emese Pápai in the catalog of the exhibition "Box World – Contemporary Box Art in Hungary" (City Art Museum – Péter Váczy Collection, Győr, 2007).
This text is based on excerpts from studies by Albert Kováts and Emese Pápai in the catalog of the exhibition "Box World – Contemporary Box Art in Hungary" (City Art Museum – Péter Váczy Collection, Győr, 2007).
The cover image is a work by Péter Prutkay.
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