The Műcsarnok pays tribute to József Árendás, one of the most influential and pioneering figures in contemporary Hungarian cultural poster art, with a major exhibition. The exhibition is timed to coincide with the artist’s 80th birthday, which provides an excellent opportunity to summarize and organize his rich body of work, as well as to draw attention to the unique values of the cultural poster genre.
The exhibition is based on the concept of a “condensed retrospective”: it does not aim for exhaustiveness, but rather presents the artist’s creative DNA, stylistic evolution, and major themes. The selection condenses the most defining periods into a single arc that is intense both visually and in terms of content. The groups of works are organized around three main themes that stand out from the artist’s career: the nostalgic movie posters of the 1970s; the era and drama of theater posters beginning in 1983; and the so-called “artist-driven” or “autonomous” posters of recent decades, which focus on a purely artistic message.
The exhibition focuses on such fundamental aspects of his body of work as intellectual humor, wry irony, blunt visual metaphors, the creation of a powerful atmosphere, and witty associations. It pays special attention to manual drawing talent — now a rare treasure in contemporary graphic design — and to the artistic approach that blends offline and digital techniques; for this reason, drawings are featured alongside the posters in the exhibition space. The exhibition not only showcases the artist’s body of work but also tells the story of the genre’s history and evolution: by incorporating a street advertising pole, it evokes the original medium and context of the posters.
József Árendás’s body of work is an excellent example of how, despite the automatisms of the digital age, profound thought, wit, and high-level graphic design can elevate the poster to the level of autonomous art. His exhibition does not merely document the milestones of a career; it also celebrates the fleeting yet enduring values of the cultural poster genre.