Klimó Károly: Unity in Diversity
The exhibition of Károly Klimó (1936) held in the space of acb Plus provides a brief overview on the oeuvre of the artist. The exhibition puts equal spotlight on Klimó’s early assemblages created in the 1970s, and the new recent paintings of the artist as well. The occasion of Klimó’s acb debut is highlighted by a book published on the artist by acb ResearchLab. Klimó has been experimenting with informel painting and material collages, assemblages based on found objects since the 1970s. Klimó occupies a special place as a colorist as well in Hungarian art history, Klimó deploys his deep red, burgundy, brown, yellow and black color palette on his works in multiple layers. The destructed surfaces of the pieces highlight a connection with existentialist philosophy and the deeply perceived history of the 20th century.
Schedule
Károly Klimó graduated as a student of Aurél Bernáth from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in 1962. From 1971 on he taught at the University: until 1990 as the senior professor of the evening course, and between 1990-2005 he was head of the painting department. Since the seventies, Klimó has been actively exhibiting both in Hungary and abroad, especially in Germany and Austria, while in 1980, he participated in the Venice Biennale. In the 1980s and 1990s, Károly Klimó became a frequent figure in the international art scene in both Western Europe and the United States. His work has been honored with numerous domestic and international awards, among which the prestigious Herder Award stands out (2005).
acb Gallery
Founded in Budapest in 2003, acb Gallery has consistently grown in the past two decades establishing itself as one of the leading actors in the Hungarian and Eastern European art market. Initially, the gallery’s focus was on Hungarian and international emerging and mid-generation neo-conceptual artists, who became active after the political changes in the former Eastern Bloc in 1990. Since then, the gallery has expanded its focus, and now represents numerous Hungarian neo-avant-garde artists who have left their mark on art history since the 1960s and 1970s, as well as members of the youngest generations beside the already established ones.
Since the autumn of 2022, acb runs three exhibition spaces: the main gallery space, acb Attachment, which serves as a project space, and acb Plus, dedicated to large-scale solo and group presentations.
acb’s research and publishing department, acb ResearchLab was founded in 2015. This platform within the gallery aims to fill the gaps in the reception and publication of Hungarian neo-avant-garde and post-avant-garde oeuvres by studying bodies of works and art phenomena previously treated as peripheral.
The gallery holds significant importance within the global art market, actively promoting its artists nationally as well as internationally and engaging in art fairs, such as the Art Basel in Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, the Frieze Masters London or the ARCO Madrid.