Variations for the Colorful City

Exhibition in collaboration with the Department of Fine and Applied Arts of the Janus Pannonius Museum and the acb Gallery in Budapest

Artists working in the enamel factory in Bonyhád between 1967 and 1972 – Imre Bak (1939), János Fajó (1937-2018), Ferenc Ficzek (1947–1987), Tihamér Gyarmathy (1915–2005), Károly Hopp-Halász (1946–2016) , János Jegenyés (1946–2008), Károly Kismányoky (1943–2018), Ferenc Lantos (1929–2014), Kamill Major (1948), Gyula Pauer (1941–2012), Sándor Pinczehelyi (1946), Lajos Szelényi (1944) , Kálmán Szijártó (1946) – and a temporary exhibition presenting the works of Victor Vasarely.

For Ferenc Lantos, the Pécs Workshop Group and the enamel works of the artists who occasionally join them, the visual form language and spirituality of the Bauhaus are through the Pécs (Marcell Breuer, Alfréd Forbát, Johan Hugó, Farkas Molnár, Henrik Stefán and Andor Weininger) was an inspiration. The durable, weather-resistant properties of enamel have made it possible to make the form of their works, which appear outdoors and in public spaces, as ornaments for buildings, a tool for a democratic visual universe edited by simple elements manifested by Victor Vasarely and understood by the general public. At the same time, the enamel paintings follow the fine art genre of the traditional panel painting and at the same time works of applied art that adorn large surfaces, which can be adapted to Vasarely's artistic principles with their architectural application. Vasarely's idea would have been to create works of art consisting of colorful, geometric, variable modules on an architectural and urban scale, according to the idea of the Color City. In the 1970s, the creators of Ferenc Lantos and the Pécs Workshop made a unique contribution to the practical realization of the idea of the Colorful City with their enamel works.