HOMMAGE TO ALFONS MUCHA

International Poster Exhibition "Hommage to Alfons Mucha". Connected to the temporary exhibition of the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts and organized by The Hungarian Poster Society.
The participants: Árendás József, Bakos István, Balogh István, Baráth Ferenc, Darvas Árpád, Ducki Krzysztof, Felvidéki András, Gyárfás Gábor, Kapitány Attila, Kemény György, Keresztes Dóra, Kulinyi István, Lance Rutter, Orosz István, Pinczehelyi Sándor, Pócs Péter, Szilvásy Nándor, Szugyiczky István, Tóth Tamás, Varga Gábor Farkas, Yann Legendre.
Vernisage: 27 May (Wednesday) 2009, 6 pm. On view until 15 June, from Monday to Friday between 9 am and 5 pm. Polish Institute - Exhibition Hall, Budapest, VI. Nagymezo u. 15.

TRIP TO POLISY

After the Poster Festival I left Chaumont for Polisy. There is the chateau of Jean de Dinteville, the French king, France I’s ambassador to the London court of Henry VIII. He could have been dropped out of history a long-long time ago if it had not been for Hans Holbein Junior’s painting that immortalized his figure. The famous table of the London National Gallery, The Ambassadors was commissioned by Dinteville himself whose figure on the left appears to be more important than the other one on the right. This elegantly dressed young man whose energetic posture and self-confident look show that his optimism is honest and his dynamism is catching so they are not only for the elegance of courtiers recommended by count Castiglione’s well-known book all over Europe, Il Cortegiano. The painting is precisely dated by Holbein: April the 11th, 1533.
Also another painting commissioned by Jean de Dinteville was hunging face-to-face with The Ambassadors in the salon of Dinteville’s chateau in Polisy. Now it is in the New York Metropolitan Museum. The size is the same as The Ambassadors and its signature is IOANNAES HOLBEIN 1537, too. The title is Moses and Aaron before the Pharaoh. It shows the scene of the Old Testament where Aaron throws his staff and it becomes a snake when Moses and his brother ask the Pharaoh to let the Jews free (Exodus 7, 8-12). The main characters of the so-called “acting“ picture are well-recognizable since their names are painted on their garments: Moses is Dinteville, the melancholic ambassador of Holbein’s other painting, Aaron is displaced by Francois Dinteville, the brother of the latter and bishop of Auxerre. Behind them Guillaume and Gaucher are standing. The fifth figure of the painting, the one with a melancholic face and moustache, may be the evoked character the fifth Dintville brother, Louis, who was not alive in 1537 when the painting was dated. Holbein himself also appears in his painting: he stands at the left side, as a fairly covered staffage-figure, only his face is visible and it seems as he is seeking eye contact with the viewers, he has a calm look like every painter who turns up in his own picture pointing out his outsider feature. However, Holbein usually did not paint himself into his pictures. He did not do it this time either since it is surely not his work. The quality of the painting falls behind the German’s. Seeking Dinteville’s secret, it has to be found out that who and why did he asked for this “Holbein-like” painting. For what purpose did he find it important to depict the painter’s portrait apart from his signature on a fake painting? If I could arouse your interest, please see more details about the secret of the paintigs, the hidden anamorphosis of The Ambassadors, the chateau of Polisy in the Hungarian blog: http://utisz-utisz.blogspot.com/ (Look for the note of May 19) or read my book: A követ és a fáraó. (Typotex Publishing House, Budapest).

POSTER FESTIVAL IN CHAUMONT

Festival International de l’affiche et des arts graphiques de Chaumont - this year is the 20th anniversary. Some years ago I was here to lead a student workshop, and in 1994 I got the ICOGRADA Prize of the Chaumont Poster Competition.
The festival brings together professional artists, design historians, journalists and student designers for workshops, exhibitions, and of course the international competition with more than 2000 entries from 46 countries.
In the previous years, a French graphic designer was asked to design the Festival poster. Now after twenty years twenty artists were invited to do the same. The international cast includes: Paulina Matusiak (the Netherlands); Piotr Mlodozeniec (Poland); Christoph Niemann (USA); Alexandra Noth et Megi Zumstein (Switzerland); Istvan Orosz (Hungary); Pony Ldt (United-Kingdom); Reza Abedini (Iran); Isidro Ferrer (Spain); Haichen Zhu (People’s Republic of China); Jan en Randoald (Belgium); Rodovan Jenko (Slovenia); Dima Kavko (Russia); Alejandro Magallanes (Mexico); Shin Matsunaga (Japan), R2 Design (Portugal); Claudia Roethlisberger (Switzerland); Leonardo Sonnoli (Italy), Thonik (the Netherlands); Vanessa Verillon (France); Henning Wagenbreth (Germany). Also they gave a short lecture about the actual poster.

A poster designer, if he is old enough and works long enough in his profession, suddenly realizes that the motives in his posters are not necessarily brand new even if he wants to make his best and more and more elements seem to be familiar from the past. Polite art historians then say that these elements are from the artist’s autonomous artistic world, while the young generation is likely to frown and may demand a more up-to-date approach.
My poster designed for the Chaumont Poster Festival shows a man without a head sitting back to us in a garden labyrinth and he is drawing his own head, or rather his own brain onto a paper pinned on a drawing board. The similarity between the paths of the maze and the loops of the brain makes the picture somewhat interesting.
When I was asked to talk about my poster, it seemed evident to look for the antecedents of these motives and how they were used in other contexts and also to show you some of the my older work where these elements are there.
There were six topics I had to take into consideration and I tried to find the symbolical meaning of the motives and to be honest, I did find some long forgotten “new” things.

One, a man with his back to us.
Two, a man without a head.
Three, men or hands drawing themselves.
Four, mazes in general.
Five, garden labyrinths.
Six, labyrinth and head together.

A GARDNER

I just got the book of Mathematical Wizardry for a Gardner, edited by Ed Pegg Jr, Alan Schoen, and Tom Rodgers. "A gardner" is nobody else but Martin Gardner, the 95 years old "mathemagician" and science writer. Gathering for Gardner (g4g) conferences are held every two years in Atlanta. Conference activities include lectures, exhibitions, performance art, puzzle and book displays magic acts, and many more informal opportunities to mix with people who share a interest in Gardner's work. I participated in g4g7 in 2006 with a lecture and with an exhibition. In the book you can find my lecture: ...Nothing but Confusion? Anamorphosis with Double Meaning.

LECTURE IN VIENNA

István Orosz: Our Point of View, or Anamorphoses as Oddity of Perspective.
Lecture, Exhibition and Animations in Peter Bornemisza Society.
Sunday 10th May 5:30 pm
Location: 1010 Wien, Capistrangasse 2/15