HEMISPHERES

 A magazine cover from 1999

A QUICK MORNING INTERVIEW

– Hello. It’s been quite a while since we last talked.

– Hello. I’m at your disposal.

– I was surprised to discover online—while browsing through the events of the Hungarian election campaign—that the leader of a party preparing to take power is posing in front of a poster made 37 years ago. The very same poster that became famous during the 1989–90 regime change. You designed that poster, and the winning party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, owes no small part of its victory in the first free election to it. Were you aware of this?

– Yes. I was surprised to see it too.

– If you were surprised, then obviously the party leader isn’t using the poster with your knowledge—let alone your permission.

– That’s correct.

– Then I suppose all this must have happened with the permission of the MDF, the party from the 1990 transition.

– I doubt that, since that party no longer exists. The MDF dissolved a long time ago.

– I see. Let me ask you one more thing: do you think it’s possible to change a political system twice using the same poster?

– I’m not aware of anything like that ever happening before.

– In any case, it’s odd that a party which, according to polls, enjoys strong support is unable to come up with its own poster. Certainly not one as iconic as yours.

– Maybe it’s not that strange after all—considering that the party’s logo is plagiarized as well.

– That’s true. One would expect a new party—one that didn’t even exist two years ago, and is trying to appeal to young people—to come up with a fresh, new, modern visual identity. The fact that they don’t have their own distinct visual style—could that suggest they don’t have a distinct cultural or even political identity either?

– There’s some logic in your question, I’ll admit—but drawing that conclusion from a reused poster and a dusted-off graphic emblem is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?

– I admit it is, but I’ll take the risk. Mainly because I’d like to finally provoke your opinion.

– We’ll soon see how far they get with this retro image. The outcome will be instructive for me as well—far beyond the current political issue.

– Thank you for the conversation. Have a nice day.

– You too. Goodbye.

 

 Klick here for more!

 

NEW YEAR WITH DAILY HELLER

"The Daily Heller" is a long-running column by renowned design critic, author, and former New York Times art director Steven Heller, published regularly in *PRINT* Magazine and on Instagram. The column features Heller's commentary, essays, and observations on graphic design, typography, art, popular culture, and New York City, often incorporating historical design elements, personal anecdotes, and critiques of contemporary visual trends. A few years ago, he featured my work in a separate daily article, which you can see by clicking here, he has featured some of my drawings in other publications (click here to see them), and now he begins his article about the theater poster exhibition in Sofia by featuring my work. Click here. Thanks Steve! (We met many years ago in the editorial office of the New York Times.)

AN ALMOST TWENTY-YEAR-OLD POSTER

 

History often repeats itself. Sometimes something similar can happen to graphic designers. In 2006, almost twenty years ago, the art director of the famous magazine The Progressive commissioned me to draw the cover of the magazine, referring to the escalating US-Iran conflict. Later, I also created the idea of ​​Mickey Mouse threatening a lion as a poster. Well, Let me show it  again.

HOMAGE TO KARI PIIPPO

Virtual exhibition to the memory of Kari Piippo. Click here to go to the virtual gallery.

SO LONG ... KARI...

In memoriam Kari Piippo (1945 - 2024)

BUCHAREST 2X

My work is shown in two exhibitions at the same time in the Romanian capital. In the framework of Bucharest Graphic Days, I will have a solo poster exhibition in the Rotonda Hall of the National Theatre in Bucharest, the central venue of the event. The material has been selected by graphic artist Ciprian N. Isac, who has directed the exhibition and designed the catalogue, thanks to him. This exhibition opens on Saturday 19 October and will be open until 10 November. The other exhibition will be in the gallery of the Liszt Institute - Hungarian Cultural Centre in Bucharest, where my autonomous graphic sheets and my mirror cylinder anamorphoses will be exhibited. The latter exhibition will open on the evening of 23 October, and will be on view until 8 November.

TOLERANCE POSTERS IN BERLIN

The Tolerance Poster Show opened at the Deutsche Bahn train station in Plauen, Germany. This show will be displayed for at least one year, and they will change some of the posters approximately every 2-3 months to refresh the show. 

 

IMPOSSIBLE XMAS TREE

 

 Let me post my Christmas tree here, it's not a new work, it was already here on the Utis Blog a few years ago, but not many people commented then. Yesterday I posted it on theFacebook, where it got over 500 likes and 22 shares in one day. I didn't look at how many times the shares were re-shared and how many times they were liked, but one thing caught my eye. The page named after Escher has 1.3 K likes and 767 shares (on Christmas Day morning). Since the uploader did not name the author (me), the more uninformed viewer is entitled to believe it is the work of M. C. Escher. In fact, Escher also dealt with probably the best known and simplest example of "impossible objects", the "tribad", more "scientifically" known as the Penrose triangle. It has been used so much in the visual arts, design, advertising and even psychology, and has become such a well-known symbol in the 20th century, that we hardly even think about questioning its origins. The curious triangle is called the Penrose triangle because it was first published in 1958 in an English psychology journal by the later renowned mathematician Roger Penrose, who won the Nobel Prize last year. But he was far from "discovering it". In Sweden, a young man called Oscar Reutersvärd had invented it decades earlier and drawn it.  "In Latin class (in 1934), I drew some sketches in the margin of a grammar book. I tried to edit the 4,5,6,7 and 8-pointed asterisks as accurately as possible. One day, I was drawing a six-pointed star with cubes on the sides. I got a surprisingly interesting shape. I added three more cubes to make a triangle. I immediately realized that what I had in front of me was a paradox."  The above recollection is from a letter Reuterswärdnak wrote to his friend, the Dutch mathematician Hans de Rijk, who, under the pen name Bruno Ernst, wrote the best books on visual paradoxes, and his compatriot Escher. From him we learn that Reuterswärd, having become familiar with Escher's increasingly popular oeuvre, including some Penrose triangle paraphrase, tried to contact him by letter, mentioning that he himself was experimenting with similar 'impossibilities', but received no reply from Escher. Yes, even the greatest people can have their moments of weakness. Whether the 'tribad' was drawn by someone before Reuterswärd, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if it appeared in the sketches of, say, Armand Thiéry, Louis Albert Necker or Henrich Schröder, since it already appears in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's Prison Sculptures of the mid-1700s, even if it is not easy to pick out among the architectural elements that are so proliferating. But there it is!

TOLERANCE POSTERS IN VIENNA

I did not write about all the locations where the Tolerance Poster exhibition organized by Mirko Ilic was held. But the current one is at a very close location, in Vienna, and it's a round number, since this is the 170th exhibition of the series that travels around the world. So the Tolerance Poster Show opened at 'designforum Wien' at Museumsplatz will be on exhibition until September 9th, 2023. 

 

 

DAILY HELLER

What you see is never what you really see. It is neither real nor surreal, it is art—the result of precision drafting and intricate mathematical logic. Hungarian illustrator, animated film director and poster artist István Orosz basks in the mystique of his ambitious visual contortions, implausible objects and incredible optical illusions....  thus begins today's writing from Steven Heller - the "Daily Heller" which features a different graphic designer each day. Steve's choice fell on me today. Click here to read the article.

AGI IN TRIESTE

The AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) congress took place in Trieste between September 18 and 23. It had never been so close to us before, and it had missed two years due to the pandemic, so with Dóra we drove to Trieste in our new car. Once we were there, we visited Miramare, Duino and, of course, we went down to Venice. Thanks to Henning Wagenbreth for the last photo.

 

RZESZÓW - ISTVÁN OROSZ – 35 LAT, 35 PLAKATÓW

ISTVÁN OROSZ – 35 LAT, 35 PLAKATÓW

wernisaż wystawy plakatu

István Orosz to wybitny węgierski grafik, malarz, projektant i reżyser filmów animowanych, znany z inspirowania się matematyką, który w swojej twórczości lokuje obiekty niemożliwe, złudzenia optyczne, obrazy o podwójnym znaczeniu. Jego prace porównywane były często do twórczości M.C. Eschera. Jest współzałożycielem Węgierskiego Stowarzyszenia Plakatu, wykładowcą na Uniwersytecie Węgier Zachodnich w Sopronie oraz członkiem Hungarian Art Academie i Alliance Graphique International (AGI).

Orosz otrzymał wykształcenie artystyczne na Uniwersytecie Sztuki i Projektowania Moholy-Nagy w Budapeszcie. Po ukończeniu studiów w 1975 roku rozpoczął pracę w teatrze jako scenograf, a następnie jako reżyser i animator w filmach animowanych. Eksplorował kilka gałęzi projektowania, takich jak ilustracja i grafika.

Wielorakie umiejętności artystyczne Orosza uzupełniały się wzajemnie: ilustrując książkę, wykorzystywał narracyjność filmu. Jego precyzja jako ilustratora pomagała mu przy projektowaniu plakatu. Odważnie eksperymentował z różnymi formami sztuki, zestawiając je ze sobą i stosując różnorodne innowacyjne metody. Krytycy uważają, że określanie go mianem plakacisty jest zbytnim uproszczeniem i zawężeniem pola jego działalności. Twórczość Orosza przekracza funkcjonujące w sztuce klasyfikacje.

István Orosz jest także jednym z jurorów 18. Międzynarodowego Biennale Plakatu Teatralnego. W ramach MFS TRANS/MISJE TRÓJMORZE odbywa się wystawa z okazji jubileuszu 35-lecia jego pracy artystycznej. Na ekspozycji prezentowane są plakaty, od których Orosz zaczynał swoją karierę grafika. Jego twórczość w tej dziedzinie to głównie plakaty dla teatrów, filmów, galerii, muzeów i wydawnictw.

Data i miejsce prezentacji: 21.08.2022/ godz. 16:00/ Galeria r_z

 

PRIZE IN JAPAN

 This poster made for my exhibition in Kazan won bronze prize at the 13th International Poster Triennial in Toyama. (Three years ago I got the bronze medal too with the "Zombi Lenin" poster.) You can visit the exhibition till 5 of September in the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design. Click here for more information.

TOKYO (1996 - 2019)

Tokyo - Ginza. Exhibition of Swiss designer Karl Gerstner in the Ginza Graphic Gallery. This visit is an occasion for some remembrance. 23 years ago in 1996 the Hungarian DOPP group had an exhibition there. (DOPP = Ducki, Orosz, Pinczehelyi, Pócs) At that time, Shigeo Fukuda gave the opening speech and László Sáry made music for the opening. The last 3 photos were taken at the GGG at the 1996 exhibition.