A guided tour by art historian Márton Keppel of József Árendás’s exhibition *Posters and Drawings*

The Műcsarnok pays tribute to József Árendás, one of the most influential and pioneering figures in contemporary Hungarian cultural poster art, with a major exhibition. The exhibition is timed to coincide with the artist’s 80th birthday, which provides an excellent opportunity to summarise and organise his rich body of work, as well as to draw attention to the unique values of the cultural poster genre. The exhibition focuses on such fundamental aspects of his body of work as intellectual humour, wry irony, outspoken visual metaphors, the creation of a powerful atmosphere, and witty associations. It pays particular attention to manual drawing skills – now a rare treasure in contemporary graphic design – and to the artistic approach that combines offline and digital techniques; consequently, alongside the posters, drawings also feature prominently in the exhibition space. The exhibition not only showcases the artist’s body of work but also tells the story of the genre and its evolution: by incorporating a street advertising column, it evokes the original medium and context of the posters.