Studios and experiments
The exhibition World Models at the Hungarian National Gallery
MúzeumCafé 33.
The Hungarian National Gallery’s temporary exhibition World Models was set up with the intention of trying to provide an opportunity for visitors to see a part of the collection which is not displayed permanently. The gallery’s Contemporary Collection, which includes 10,000 works, is a collection and archive of post-1945 Hungarian art history and has been continuously expanded since 1975. The expansion policy indicates not only the nature of art at any one time, but also the cultural policy according to which the works of art were acquired by the gallery. Thus the need arose for a series of exhibitions to provide some interpretation for the collection’s unexhibited groups of artworks. The first is a compilation which reflects on two issues: Béla Kondor’s photo series that was made at the end of the artist’s life, and the possibilities of interpretation vis-à-vis a studio. Kondor is mostly noted by the Hungarian public for his paintings, graphic works and illustrations. He was an artist treading his independent path and cannot be included in any school or stylistic category. One of his last series, a model photographic series is interesting from several aspects. It demonstrates how Kondor’s way of thinking in terms of graphic art can present itself in the artistic use of photographs, as well as to what extent his specific way of thinking could involve experimentation. The photos, representing the starting point of World Models, show technical experiments with models in a studio environment. The studio as the scene of trials and as an artist’s direct work environment has always played a distinguished role in art history. Since the age of Romanticism a studio has been regarded as a place of personal refuge and the birth of masterpieces.