The change of regime in the 1990s also marked an important turning point in the spirit of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts. The changes in art education brought innovative art teachers (László Beke, Dóra Maurer, György Jovánovics, Zsigmond Károlyi, Károly Klimó, Miklós Peternák, János Sugár) to the institution.
“At the Academy of Fine Arts until the change of regime art education was based on 19th century pedagogical principles – Károlyi formulated his position in this context when he announced his own course. He rethought the master-student relationship that was fundamental to the academic model: at the age of thirty-eight he began his highly influential teaching practice based on the analysis of painting and using dialogical methods by deconstructing his own role. As a result the course within the walls of the Academy of Fine Arts “was finally not about ‘how to paint’, but about what painting means.”
Zsigmond Károlyi, who considered art pedagogy important, recognized the outdatedness of Hungarian art education and therefore, contrary to the 19th century educational principles still in force at the college, he considered monochrome/radical painting as the basis of new academic thinking, quoting Ad Reinhard. Linking his pedagogical work to the artistic issues that preoccupied himself and his old student Gábor Ősz, he started a course in monochrome painting.
The exhibition Tabula Rasa explores the past and present history of the legendary monochrome painting class in art history. In the two exhibition halls of the House of Arts Veszprém (Modern Art Gallery — László Vass Collection and Csikász Gallery) selected works of the teachers of the class — Zsigmond Károlyi, András Bernát, András Gál — and of the students attending the courses will be presented.