The second definitive group of artworks from Endre Tót’s early conceptual period contains his “Rain” works. The pattern of “Rain” that emerged by repeatedly hitting the “/////” key on the typewriter appeared on various (paper-based) carriers in Tót’s works, always accompanied by text. Found pictures – postcards, reproductions of well-known paintings, or images from magazines – comprised the basis of a significant portion of the “Rain” works, on which the artist typed in various directions, creating diverse shapes and densities, and also inserting texts with references to the image or the shape of the rain. The so-called “Rainy Sentences” constitute a group of their own. In each of these works, Tót inserted a humorous statement in the fabric of the “rain-typing” that appears on a plain white sheet of paper.

The greatness of the “Rain” works lies partly in that they are works of art that have been created through minimalistic tools (the monotonous repetition of a single motif), which stand on the borderlines of text and image, and which can even be regarded as visual poems. Secondly, the appearance of the text – even when it is only indicatively present – provided fertile grounds for the intellectual playfulness characteristic of Endre Tót’s approach, which at times manifested in the form of banal tautology, and at other times as (self-)ironic artistic self-expression or humorous political references. Tót’s early Rainproof Ideas were first displayed in the form of a solo exhibition at the Israel Museum of Jerusalem in 1975. His “Rain” works continued to be present throughout his entire oeuvre. The exhibition at the acb Attachment showcases a selection of his early pieces, created primarily in Hungary during the 1970s.

Supported by: NKA