The exhibition presents the works of Zoltán Tölg-Molnár, István Bodóczky and Tamás Körösényi, recalling a special period of contemporary Hungarian art and the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, full of inspiration and experimentation, and offering an insight into the everyday life of the art colony in Tihany with the help of archival photographs.
New medium: paper sculpture
Zoltán Tölg-Molnár, who passed away in March this year at the age of 80, is widely known for his paper sculptures, the post-1990 phase of his oeuvre. However, only those who knew the artist or took part in his summer courses in Tihany have been able to gain an insight into the circumstances of their creation.
Tölg-Molnár, who until 1990 mainly worked in oil on canvas, began to work almost exclusively on paper, or more specifically on pulp, from 1990. It was then that his attention turned to the possibilities of creating relief-like ‘pictorial objects’, paper dipping and paper sculpture. This technique was developed in the United States in the early 1970s and had no followers in Hungary for a long time. In the 1990s, however, the idea that paper could be not only a medium for the work, but also a medium for the work itself, became more popular in Hungary. Why Tölg-Molnár chose this particular material, he put it this way in a letter written in 1999:
“For nearly a decade, I have been working with crushed paper, the paper mass that allows me to knead, shape, paste, colour, trusting myself to the memory of the material, which can show and preserve our moments of talent.”
The exhibition Tihany ’90 presents works by Zoltán Tölg-Molnár, alongside works by István Bodóczky and Tamás Körösényi, also on paper, created at the same time. The careers of the three artists are not only linked through their common medium, but also through the Tihany Artists’ Colony, where all three were active artists in addition to their teaching activities.
The relationship between artist and artists’ colony
The Tihany Artists’ Colony (officially known as the József Somogyi Artists’ Camp) was taken over by the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in the 1970s, thanks to the intervention of József Somogyi, providing a summer practice site for generations of students and later artists. After József Somogyi’s retirement in 1987, the art colony was effectively left without a “leader”. The year 1990 brought a change, when Zoltán Tölg-Molnár was promoted to the head of the painting department and at the same time appointed as the organiser responsible for the operation and educational programme of the Tihany Artists’ Village. In 1991, courses were already being held with the participation of college teachers and invited lecturers, which can be called “life-changing”. In addition to the experimental plan-air workshop, the mural workshop, lectures on land-art and nature art were offered to students who visited the art camp at the beginning of the decade. Tölg-Molnár not only found in Tihany the necessary location for the realisation of his pedagogy, but also the subject matter and the source of inspiration for his newly acquired technique, paper sculpture.
“Tihany is a corner of the world where I feel, have always felt, perhaps more sensitive, more talented: where challenges speak to me more clearly. The dimensions that make me feel so small give me the energy to breathe. The vast space, the silence, the water, the sunshine, sometimes the rain, the cosmic power of the wind: in Tihany they help me to be part of Creation in a natural way. Surrounded by these materials, I can truly be part of the creation. By watching and listening, by provoking and destroying them, with a lot of patience, courage and luck I can find myself in the blessed position of sensitivity, which I believe is the basis of all art. And finally, if I find that the ‘dead’ material has managed to absorb the power of the wind, the rain, the sun, and of course my own faith: then a picture is born, and then I feel happy.”
The research in preparation for the Tihany ’90 exhibition focused specifically on the events of the 1990s. Recently, hundreds of private photographs have been collected and will be published online during the exhibition. The majority of the photographs depict everyday life in the artists’ colony. They show former teachers and students at work, flying kites, playing football, cooking and other activities. The archive photos are constantly posted on our social networking site called Tihany Artists’ Colony.