Graphic arts biennales

Special opportunities for works exhibited at regular shows when acquired by collections

MúzeumCafé 41.

Fine arts biennales began to spread across Europe towards the end of the 19th century, at a time when the traditional academic institutional structure was being replaced by a more democratic one. The biennale in its full sense originally had the aspect of a salon, of which the main, indeed only aim was to survey the current artistic situation of a region or genre at regular intervals. For example, in 1895 a biennale was established in Venice to promote regional cultural and economic development. The numbers speak for themselves. From the beginning of the 1960s to today, twelve graphic arts biennales, lasting for various lengths of time, have been organised in Hungary. This is an indisputable sign of the significance the graphic arts enjoy in the art scene, as well as their vitality and the successful creative power of graphic artists in Hungary. In the 1960s it was only the Eger National Water Colour Biennale of 1968 which ended the monopoly of Miskolc. Then the Balaton Small Design Biennale and the Békéscsaba Graphic Design Biennale were launched in 1971 and 1978 respectively. In the following decade the Salgótarján National Drawing Biennale was established in 1982, while in 1987 the first International Art Book exhibition was held in Székesfehérvár. The post-1989 ‘biennale boom’ involved new graphic design events appearing almost every year throughout the 1990s. During this period up to the beginning of the following decade sometimes a dozen national shows of graphic art were staged simultaneously. Understandably, the impetus was broken by the economic crisis. Thus the period 2002-2009 witnessed the cessation of the Esztergom, Szekszárd and Budapest sculptural design exhibitions and from 2008 the Miskolc and Salgótarján shows became triennial.