Géza Perneczky by Chimera-Project

GÉZ A PERNECZK Y Conceptual Photography 1970’s

Chimera- Projec t Galler y

Chimera-Project Gallery Klauzál tér 5. H-1072 Budapest Patrick Urwyler Director & Owner +36 30 768 29 47 patrick@chimera-project.com www.chimera-project.com

C ATA L O G Index

Géza Perneczky

04–05

Concepts like Commentary

08–15

Art Bubbles

16–19

Art Ball Stories

20–23

Art Action 2

24–25

Yes-No Art

26–29

Yes-No Strategy

30–31

Yes-No Concept

32–35

Senses

36–37

Mirror Dance

38–39

Cyclops

40–41

Curriculum Vitae

42–45

The Gallery

46–47

Concepts like Commentary (Art Bubble II.), 1972 Silver print, detail

G É Z A PE R N E C Z K Y Conc ept s lik e C o m m e n ta ry

A soap bubble on which the word “art” is reflected, gently rises into the air – this is the first image. On the second one, several bubbles are merged into a complex form, irregular, that multiplies the word “art”. On the third one, a man makes the soap bubbles, spreading and reflecting the word “art” mirrored. The handwritten note informs us that this is a performance that the Hungarian artist of the neo avantgarde Géza Perneczky executed in 1972. He achieved this by writing the word “art” mirror inverted “ ” on the window of his studio. This piece is part of an existing series, as we learned, an analytic examination of art as an idea.1 Qu’est-ce que la photographie? (what is photography) is the title of the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou (March 4 – June 1 2015). The text above written by the museum’s photography curator Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska was the introduction of the exhibition’s accompanying catalog. The mentioned series, in which the three described art bubble photographies have a prominent place, is entitled “Concepts like Commentary” (1971/72) and originally consists of seven other experimental arrangements using the word “art”. This catalog takes Perneczky’s most known work “Concepts like Commentary” and the year in which it was created as a starting point and opportunity to present the artist’s ongoing engagement with the medium of photography. As the representing gallery Chimera-Project for the first time ever presents a comprehensive overview of the artist’s most important conceptual photography edited as a consistent and independent work group. Géza Perneczky is an art historian, writer and fine artist. As since 1970 he lives and works in Cologne, he was an important mediator between the Hungarian/Eastern European and the international art scene. Perneczky is a protagonist of the Hungarian conceptual art, his early conceptual works

Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, À la recherche de la photographie, in: Qu’est-ce que la photographie?, ed. Clément Chéroux, Exhibition Catalog, Centre Pompidou, March 4 - June 1 2015. p. 22-29. 1

and also his publications had a catalyst role on the Hungarian neo-avantgarde tendencies. On the international scene he became known as one of the founder of the post-fluxus mail art movement, which also defined the character of his conceptual works. Géza Perneczky’s works can be found in the collection of MoMA, New York, Getty Institute, Centre Pompidou, Walker Art Center, Franklin Furnace Archive, Ludwig Museum Budapest, Hungarian National Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, National Gallery Prague, Art Pool Budapest, etc. Géza Perneczky had several exhibitions internationally in MoMA NY, the Wiener Sezession, Kölner Kunsthalle, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Concept Art, San Francisco, Olmütz Museum of Art, In-Out Center and Stempelplaast in Amsterdam, and in Hungarian Institutions as well, like Vasarely Museum in Budapest, Ludwig Museum, King St. Stephan Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest Gallery, Art Pool Budapest. In 2006 he received the Great State Award (Széchenyi Price), which is a prize given by the Hungarian State in recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to academic life in Hungary. Our selection of photography in this small catalog is only a first step towards a complete catalog raisonée, that will also include the already published catalogs presenting the artist’s other work groups such as “Stamp Art”, “Artist Books” and “String Pictures”. This artistic oeuvre and rich production of the past 40 years still only represents a fraction of Perneczky’s roles and of what he achieved and made him a key figure in Hungarian contemporary art in the late 20th century. Concepts like Commentary (Art Bubble IV.), 1972 Silver print, detail

C O N C E P T S L IK E C O M M E N TA RY 1971/ 72

The original series entitled “Concepts like

Commentary” consists out of 7 motives that put the word “art” into various contexts and actions.

Concepts like Commentary (mini-concept), 1971 Silver print

Concepts like Commentary (anti-reflection), 1971 Silver print

Concepts like Commentary (sunset), 1971 Silver print

Concepts like Commentary (cockoo-concept), 1971 Silver print

Concepts like Commentary (a very sensitive may-concept), 1971 Silver print

Concepts like Commentary (art takes an artificial sunbath), 1971 Silver print

Concepts like Commentary (mutation), 1971 Silver print

«ART BUBBLES» 1972

In 1972 the artist finalized the original

“Concepts like Commentary” series with his three famous “Art Bubbles” motives.

A fourth, rather rare “Art Bubble” motive gave insight in how the art reflections on the soap

bubbles were made in the artist’s studio. This fourth motive was published later. On a few

copies Perneczky added a handwritten note with instructions, that refere to the process behind the artwork:

“Paint on the window the word “

“. Blow

soap-bubbles into the room. Then you’ll

see the word “art” reflecting on the soapbubbles, before they dissolve.”

Perneczky 1972.

Concepts like Commentary (Art Bubble I.), 1972 Silver print

Concepts like Commentary (Art Bubble II.), 1972 Silver print

Concepts like Commentary (Art Bubble III.), 1972 Silver print

A R T B A L L S TOR IE S 1971/ 2014

In 2014 Pernezcky created a re-edition of his 1971/72 “Concepts like Commentary” series. The new series is entitled “Art Ball Stories” and consists of 14 works. The re-edition includes the entire “Concepts like Commentary” series (10 photos), plus the mentioned fourth “Art Bubble” photo and three “art” motives from 1971/72 that are more or less unknown.

Art Ball Stories (Art Bubble IV.), 1972/2014 Lambda Print, 30x40cm

Art Ball Stories (drowned), 1972/2014

Art Ball Stories (undressed), 1972/2014

Art Ball Stories (mimicry), 1972/2014

Lambda Print, 30x40cm

A R T A C T I ON S 2 1973

Art Actions 2 (I.), 1973 Silver print

Art Actions 2 (II.), 1973 Silver print

Y E S - N O A RT by G ĂŠz a P er ne c z k y

Yes-No Strategy (Series of 16), 1972 Silver print

YES-NO ART by Géza Perneczky Does it exist at all? Or wouldn’t be more proper to call it Yes-No Conceptions, Positive-Negative worldviews, or the eternal conflict between Good and Bad? The Chinese philosophy began with the three and a half thousand year old Yin-Yang sign, that originally referred to the unity of the shaded valley and the sunlit mountaintop. Its graphic symbol is a circle made of two interlocking black and white forms, that is well known all over the world as being the sign of the inseparable unity of the principles of good and bad. Maybe the end of European art is similar to the beginning of Chinese philosophy in the sense that the last avant-garde movement has reached the point where only the indication of the basic principles is left. Artists have refused all the usual types of representation, moreover they denied the expressions of abstract art too, and started to express their thoughts using only a few signs and words. Thus the audience had to use their erudition and phantasy, since the reception of art has changed too: the passive joy of aesthetic beauty has changed to the more complex joy of recognition: it was the viewer who completed the artwork by interpreting the laconic signs according to his/her intellectual and emotional world. The fashionable trend of using word and picture-enigmas became an international movement that culminated in the 1960-s and 70-s and was called Concept Art. It had a more popular branch that was well known in the alternative circles. It was called Mail Art, which used those qualities of Concept Art that made it easy to send them by post: they could be small enough to fit in an envelope, they could be cheaply multiplied, and it also didn’t cost much to post them. This Mail Art network connected artists from all over the world, thus it can be seen as the ancestor of the internet that transmitted only experience of art. Geza Perneczky’s Yes-No Art conception was made in Köln from 1972 to 1974 during the high school classes he held. He used the cardboards he got from his students and some spare coloured prints left in the classroom. The works were originally made by collage and gouache technique. The antecedent of this series was Perneczky’s YES and NO rubber stamps he made in 1972 joining the international Mail Art movement. He tried to enlarge this to a „world symbol” and imagined monumental actions, so huge, that it would have moved the countries and even the continents. This project couldn’t come true of course, and only the students could examine the transition of the colourful photos to painted details „as everything would be real”. The works were put in a wardrobe and only one decade later were they taken out when electro-print reproductions were made of them. Perneczky’s works of the Yes-No idea from the beginning of the 1970’s are represented in photos, prints and collages. Whitin the artist’s conceptual photography the works “Yes-No Strategy” and “YesNo Concept” both from 1972 are the most important Yes-No photo series.

This text is written by Géza Perneczky and published for his solo exhibition at Karton Gallery Budapest, 2012 Translation: Zsuzsanna Tóth

Yes-No Concept (Series of 6), 1972 Silver print

Y E S - N O S T R AT E GY 1972

Yes-No Strategy (Series of 16), 1972 Silver print

YES-NO CONCEPT 1972

Yes-No Concept (Series of 5), 1972 Silver print

SENSES 1973

Senses, 1973 Silver print

MIRROR DANCE 1973

Mirror Dance, 1973 Silver print

C Y C L O PS 1975

Cyclops, 1975 Silver print

xxx xxx xxx

G É Z A PE R N E C Z K Y *1936 in K es z t h e l y, H u n g a ry | l i v e s a n d w orks i n C ol ogne, Germany

STUDIES 1954 – 57 1957 – 62

Bartók Béla Music Art Academy Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Humanities, Budapest, HU

AWARDS & GRANTS 2006

Széchenyi-Prize, Hungarian State Prize, Budapest

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA Getty Institute, Los Angeles, USA Walker Art Center, Minnesota, USA Fine Art Museum, Budapest, HU Franklin Furnace Archive, NY, USA Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, HU King St. Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár, HU Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, HU Museum of Art in Łódź, PL Museum of Modern Art in Niepołomice Muzeum umění Olomouc, CZ National Gallery, Prague, CZ The Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, DE Vasarely Museum, Budapest, HU Vintage Galéria, Budapest, HU

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION) 2016 2014 2012 1987 1986 1984 1982 1980 1977 1973

Post Infinite, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapst, HU Concepts like Commentary, Museum Weserburg, DE Quotes from the Collection, MOCAK, Krakaw, PL Tightrope Walk, with Adrián Kupcsik, Lőrinc Borsos, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest, HU Karton Gallery, Budapest, HU Budapest Gallery, Budapest, HU The story of the colourful ribbons. 25. Volume. ARTE VIDA (artist’s book) Liget Gallery, Budapest, HU De Media, Eeklo, Gent, BE Galerie St. Petri, Lund Museum of Concept Art, San Francisco, USA Verlag-G. Leaman, Düsseldorf, DE In Out-Center, Amsterdam, NL

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION) 2016 2015 2014 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007

Neon Discotheque, GalleryWeekend Budapest, HU Sequence, Vintage, Budapest, HU Bookmarks - OFF, Off Biennale Budapest, Budapest, HU Bookmarks – Neo-Avantgarde und Postkonzeptualische Positionen in der Ungarischen Kunst der 1960er Jahre bis heute, Art Cologne, Cologne, D Analog Network: Mail Art, 1960–1999, MoMA, New York, USA LUDWIG 25. The Contemporary Collection, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, HU From Tizian to Warhol 1951-2011, Olomouc Museum of Art, Olmütz, CZ Chance as Strategy, Vasarely Museum, Budapest, HU Transparency – Looking Through, Vasarely Museum, Budapest ORNAMENT – SERIALITY. Historical and contemporary art, Vasarely Museum, Budapest, HU Olomouc Central European Forum III. Hungary | Hungarian Art from the Collections of the Olomouc Museum of Art, Olmütz, CZ Fleuves, Gandy Gallery, Bratislava, SK Turning Pages. Modern Book Culture in the Collections of the Olomouc Museum of Art, Olmütz, CZ Ad Absurdum. Energies of the Absurd from Modernism till Today, Marta Herford, Herford Outrageous I. Neoavantgard tendencies in Hungarian Photography 1965-1984. Budapest Gallery, Budapest, HU Portable I2 Museum – Pop Art, Conceptual Art and Actionism in Hungary of the Sixties (1956-1976), Dorottya Gallery, Budapest, HU

2003 Distant Proximity. Hungarian post-war Art from the Collections of King St. Stephan Museum, Székesfehérvár, HU Olomouc Museum of Art, Olmütz, CZ Artstamps, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU Das andere Land, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, DE 1987 Wer hat Angst vor Moholy-Nagy? Ungarische Künstler in Deutschland, IGNIS, Osteuropäisches Kulturzentrum, Cologne, DE In quotation marks, King Saint Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár, HU 1986 Die 60er Jahre/The 60’s, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, DE Modern graphics, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU 1985 Artist’s Book, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA 1984 Mail Art International. Wiener Sezession, Vienna, A In quotation marks, King Saint Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár, HU Mail Art Then and Now, Franklin Furnace, NY, USA 1983 Mail (art) stamps & treated stamps, Musé Postal, Brussels, BE Kunstenaarsboeken = Artist’s Books : From the Other Books & So Archive Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, NL 1982 Künstlerbücher, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, DE 1980 Artist’s Book, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, ISL 1977 Niet-Stempels (~, Burg, Jong, Armleder, Gibbs, Sosno) Stempeelplaats, Amsterdam, NL 1974 Hungria 74 en el Cayc, Buenos Aires, ARG Ungarische Kunst ’74, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg, DE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AS ART CRITIC 1962 – 1965 Hungary Art Publishing House 1962 – 1968 Art Critic at Magyar Nemzet Newspaper 1968 Art Critic at Élet és Irodalom Art Periodical Hungarian Television Fine Art & Artpedagogical Programs 1970 Deutsche Welle extern contributor Deutschlandfunk Radio extern contributor

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS Perneczky, Géza. Mail Art – Opposition or Place of Refuge? In: Mail Art Congress-Dokumentation. Schwerin, 1997. Perneczky, Géza. Es lebe die Kulturpfuschi! Die Mail Art Bewegung in Ungarn. In: Mail Art – Osteuropa im internationalen Netzwerk, Schwerin, 1996. s./p. 35–55 (de, en). Perneczky, Géza. The Network (monography), Cologne, 1993. Perneczky, Géza. The Magazine Network, Assembling Magazines 1969-2000, 1993. Perneczky, Géza. How to use this catalogue? (Introduction to the catalouge of the Network/Mail Art NY.). Perneczky, G. Network Atlas. Works and Publications by the People of the First Network. Volume 2: O-Z Volume 1 – A – N. A Historical Atlas for the Post-Fluxus Movements as Mail Art, Visual Poetry, Copy Art, Stamp Art & Other Relative Trends with Addresses, Projects, Publications & Exhibition Events (Unedited manuscript for letter size). Update: April 2003. Perneczky, Géza. Network Atlas. Works and Publications by the People of the First Network. Perneczky, Géza. Artist Books in European View. Perneczky, Géza. Mail Art Project MARX-TEST 1983.

CHIMERA-PROJECT GALLERY Ab out

The Chimera-Project Gallery is a program-gallery founded 2013 in Budapest. The galleryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile ranges from neo-avantgarde to recent conceptually grounded practices, representing artists from the CEE region. Through its Swiss-Hungarian founders Patrick Urwyler (Art Historian, CH) and BoglĂĄrka Mittich (Sociologist, HU) the gallery operates on an international level and is dedicated to a professional thematic exhibition program that generates a meaningful discourse in contemporary art around relevant artistic and social topics. Our main professional goal is to support international exchange. The annual program consists of two interrelated sections of exhibitions: one section we realize in our own gallery in Budapest, inviting local and international positions and the other section takes place abroad through various projects. We built up an exchange program, based on bilateral exhibition series, called Inter Art and we established an international award, the Chimera Art Award. We believe, that international visibility is very important for artists, especially from the CEE region. This is the point where artists, institutions and art professionals have to strengthen collaboration and build bridges to get visible on the global scene.

Patrick Urwyler

Bogi Mittich

Director & Owner

Gallery Manager

+36 30 768 29 47

+36 30 682 32 79

patrick@chimera-project.com

bogi@chimera-project.com

www.chimera-project.com