József Szurcsik - Moon, Lightening, Leaser

József Szurcsik’s Latest Exhibition at Godot Gallery.

József Szurcsik, a recipient of both the Kossuth Prize and the Mihály Munkácsy Prize, is a visual artist, graphic artist, painter, performer, and musician. He served as Vice Rector of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts and was formerly Head of the Department of Graphic Arts, where he continues to teach as an Associate Professor. His artistic career began during the late socialist era and the years surrounding Hungary’s political transition. This period is not merely a historical backdrop in Szurcsik’s work; one of the recurring themes of his art is the relationship between the individual, their environment, and structures of power.

One of the most emblematic motifs in his oeuvre is the human face, consistently depicted in profile and stripped of individual characteristics. Through this anonymity, the image acquires a universal significance. This metamorphic half-profile does not exist in isolation; at times it is hidden within landscapes, arranged into rows and uniform structures, or merged with monumental architectural forms and various geometric shapes.

Szurcsik also addresses ideas of withdrawal from the present, isolation, and timelessness through distinctive artistic means. Towards the end of the 1990s, perhaps in connection with the loss of the hopes associated with the political transition, he increasingly retreated into the world of static myths.

The diversity of his artistic legacy is reflected in the richness of the techniques and genres he employs. Alongside printmaking works and distinctive oil-acrylic paintings created with a cracked, antique-effect technique, his oeuvre includes small-scale sculptures, painted tool sculptures, colorful paper installations, and welded metal sculptures.

In this newly opening exhibition, József Szurcsik presents an extraordinary body of work. Visitors will have the opportunity to see the artist’s earliest paintings, hidden from public view for nearly forty years and, in some cases, never before exhibited. These rare geometric and surreal compositions reveal the energy and creative excitement of a young artist at the beginning of his career. The exhibition also features graphic works from his early period, including the figures of the so-called “Regime-Change Panopticon,” rendered with merciless irony, and presented in dialogue with his latest, newly created works.

The exhibition is open to the public until December 19, from Tuesday to Friday between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., and on Saturdays between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Cover picture: József Szurcsik: Moon, Lightening, Leaser, 1987, acryl, oil, canvas, 100x150 cm