“He will eventually recognize himself, because the collar of his shirt is dotted with points, and these points transmit the centers of recognition toward his own essence.”
The exhibition organized to mark Aladár Almásy’s 80th birthday is a retrospective selection presenting works spanning the past decades and various genres—primarily those that have not previously been shown in an exhibition. The genre diversity characteristic of Aladár Almásy is represented by sculptures of various sizes, reproduced prints (lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts), paintings, and unique works on paper (watercolors and drawings).
The exhibition will feature a unique publication derived from the inventory of Aladár Almásy’s works. The editors of the volume, Lídia Takács and Ivor Almásy, aim to present the 800 work titles from two perspectives: as literary content and as individual entries in the inventory, focusing on the identification of the objects. The first half of the publication therefore presents the collection of titles almost as a stream of verse, with poet Miklós Borsik’s introductory text guiding the reader into its deeper layers.
Aladár Almásy, a visual artist and recipient of the Mihály Munkácsy Award, was born in Debrecen in 1946. He began his career as a graphic artist in the 1970s and won the Grand Prize at the National Graphic Arts Biennial in Miskolc in 1985. In the 1980s, his artistic focus shifted increasingly toward painting, though his work in graphic arts remained consistent throughout. Beginning in the 1990s, he also found fulfillment in the medium of sculpture; his spatial compositions are, to use the term coined by József Gaál, “Mannerist object collages.” His art draws on cultural-historical and literary sources, which he employs entirely autonomously and freely to create his visual associations.
Ivor Almásy