The wall is moving! István Mácsai in Kiscelli
Seventeen years ago, in 2005, István Mácsai - born a hundred years ago-, ended his life's work, rich in works and genres, and also wide in time, and since then, despite the occasional flare-up of attention, he has been surrounded by a kind of perplexity. From the outset, the reception of Máchiai has been contradictory and fragmented. ... Instead of a purely qualitative, canonical approach concentrating on the main works, we have undertaken a multifaceted presentation of the oeuvre. Our intention is not to judge, but to interpret, to provide reference points - to construct and visualise parallel narratives and contexts.
Schedule
- The wall is moving! István Mácsai in Kiscelli
István Mácsai was not only a painter, but also an important amateur filmmaker and photographer. The many thousands of photographs and dozens of eight millimetre film sequences preserved in the estate, together with the bundles of diaries written with varying intensity over a lifetime, form a convincing and nuanced network in which the juxtaposition of photographic, cinematographic, pictorial and textual forms offers the researcher the possibility of a change of focus and horizon. In this approach, the pictorial and written forms are not research points of reference for the paintings, but rather the interlocking imprints of autonomous representations, the texts of a manic gaze that open up new permeations both in the oeuvre and in our knowledge of the period.
The title of our exhibition refers in part to the oeuvre that is intended to be brought out of hiding, and in part to the walls that are actually starting to open up in the Temple Square. The installation, a work by Botond Devich, which moves to a time signature, rhymes works and documents in polyphonic shapes in a shifting rhythm of meeting, approaching and moving away from each other. Themes of the city and modernity are juxtaposed with traditional role-stylings and motifs of disenchantment, professional resonance with art-commercial success, in shifting ensembles and multiple interpretative textures. In configurations that merge and then diverge, former critiques are juxtaposed with works that have since been shown in a different light, and the personal contours of the taxidermy and the models are superimposed on paintings, photographs and films. The wall movements dramatise the interdependent threads and also provide an opportunity to speak from multiple perspectives about the chronic ebb and flow of the painterly self-image that runs through the oeuvre, not only in the repetitive threads of the diaries but also in the series of hidden self-portraits.
Rather than a purely qualitative, canonical approach concentrating on the main works, we have attempted a multi-faceted presentation of the oeuvre. Our intention is not to judge, but to interpret, to provide reference points - to build and envision parallel narratives and contexts.
Date: 09.12.2022 - 02.04.2023 Opening hours: from Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-18:00
Kiscelli Museum
The Kiscelli Museum and its 15 hectares of parkland are located in the 3rd district of Budapest, between Óbuda and Remetehegy. The 18th century Baroque church and Trinitarian monastery, built by the Zichy family, was used as a barracks by the army in the 19th century. In 1910 it became the property of furniture manufacturer Miksa Schmidt, who later had it converted into a castle, hence the name Schmidt Castle. It is now home to the Budapest History Museum's collection of Modern Urban History and the Budapest City Gallery, the fine arts collection.