Seeing the Whole Picture: Studies on the Work of György Konecsni
We are pleased to announce the release of a new publication of KEMKI. This richly illustrated volume of essays—published in connection to KEMKI ADK’s research on cold war modernisms, and edited by Katalin Bakos and Eszter Szőnyeg-Szegvári—explores the oeuvre of György Konecsni from new perspectives. At the book launch event, Tünde Topor will moderate a conversation between Katalin Bakos, Sára Bárdi, Anikó Katona and Eszter Szőnyeg-Szegvári.
György Konecsni’s art is characterized by a diversity of styles and forms. He is known by many as a poster artist and a pioneer of modern Hungarian applied graphics, and by others as the co-creator of one of the most cited works of historicist socialist realism, Before the Storm (1951).
Beyond exploring Konecsni’s body of works from new perspectives, the authors of this new volume published by the Central European Research Institute for Art History (KEMKI), draw on the findings of new Hungarian and international research with respect to the period in order to present aspects of—and groups of works from—his oeuvre that are either already well known, or have been sidestepped or deliberately kept invisible. The scope of explored works ranges from tourism-oriented, commercial and political posters to public art, from monumental-scale historicist paintings to abstract expressionist works, from stamp designs to literary illustrations, from caricatures to sgraffito art, from inventive typographic solutions to experimental surface design techniques.
(Excerpt from the foreword by David Fehér)
The participants of the book launch:
Katalin Bakos (co-editor, former colleague of the Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery)
Sára Bárdi (KEMKI, Research Department)
Anikó Katona (Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Prints and Drawings)
Eszter Szőnyeg-Szegvári (co-editor, KEMKI, Archive and Documentation Center)
Moderator: Tünde Topor (chief editor, Artmagazin)
Welcoming remarks: Dávid Fehér, the director of KEMKI
Authors: Katalin Bakos, Sára Bárdi, Barbara Dudás, Anikó Katona, Ágnes Képiró, Mária Madár, Emese Révész, Jenő Szabó, Eszter Szőnyeg-Szegvári, György Szücs, Károly Tóth, Ádám Várkonyi, Dániel Véri.
The book was designed by Gergő Zámbó and typeset by Imre Kiss.
The language of the event is Hungarian.
On the day of the book launch, the book will be available for purchase at the bookstore and webshop of the Museum of Fine Arts.
