Miraculous system was originally the title of one of Tolvaly’s public performances, but the message included in the title also applies to the exhibit material presented here. This exhibition aims to show a cross-section of Tolvaly’s entire life-work. Unfortunately, his career came to an end at an unexpectedly early time, when the artist was only 61 years old. However, this barely 30-year-long career illustrates how a splendid and intelligent artist generation tried to seek new ways and means and build their own artistic world.
Ernő Tolvaly is an outstanding representative of the second generation of Hungarian Neo-Avantgarde. In spite of his quiet personality, he exerted an influence on his colleagues as an artist, an organizer and a teacher, from the 1970s until his death in 2008. Already during his study years he was a member of the Rózsa-kör, later on also active participant of other Hungarian artist groups, e.g. the Mini Gallery and the Rabinec group.
Beside painting, Tolvaly’s artistic activity encompassed action, photography, installation and object art, too. The common intellectual base of all these various art forms was his continuous interest in issues of image-making, vision, colour, reflection and perception. This wide variety of genres reflects not only Tolvaly’s curious, inquiring mind, but also his sense of humour. In his late years, crossing over styles and periods, he repainted with virtuoso technique works by great predecessors (for example Cézanne, Monet), adapting their image-making methods and projecting himself into their image-making activity.
The centre piece of the exhibition is the display of Tolvaly’s last finished work, titled Museum, which is, actually, a most delicate presentation of his artistic conceptions. This series of painted installations, quite extraordinary regarding size and effects, is a summary of Tolvaly’s stylistic analysis, investigations on modernism, also a synthesis of that particular, unique painting system that states and denies at the same time the actuality of the genre of painting.
The exhibition is on view until 30 November 2014.
For further information on the exhibition, please, click HERE.
