Ilona Keserü is a leading figure of the neo-avantgarde generation of artists that coalesced in the early 1960s. She would ultimately create a coherent oeuvre in Hungary to make a powerful statement for the second half of the 20th century.
She had been professionally trained from childhood. Her mentor, beginning in 1946, was Ferenc Martyn, once part of the École de Paris, who returned to Hungary in the mid-40s. From him she mastered the fundamentals of drawing in the mother tongue of abstract art.
In 1958, during the most oppressive years of doctrinaire socialist realism, she graduated from the fresco department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. A turning point in her career came with a stay in Italy in 1962-63. In the first half of the 60s, she began to paint in a classical modernist vein influenced by abstract painting. These were dynamic free-flow drawings of sweeping energy, restricted to a palette of three or four colors, in the Numbered Images series. These were the first manifestations of Keserü’s crystallized color sensibility.
In 1967, Keserü discovered the rustic, heart-shaped headstones of the cemetery at Balatonudvari that would become a central motif of her painting for a long while to come. Although previously familiar with the place and its gravestones, she was so moved by the experience on one particular excursion with friends near Lake Balaton that she – as she puts it herself – “immediately felt a powerful need to paint a cavalcade of these shapes in all their variety. They appeared before me – beautiful, weathered, crumbling bits of limestone large and small – that nothing in this world was so important or close to me than these big puffy, arching, two or three-lobed, half-buried stone pastries“.
Katalin Aknai
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHY
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Ilona Keserü 90. Self-Powered Pictures. A Selection from the Graphic Oeuvre. Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
2021
Costume designs, screen prints, drawings from Szentendre and the 20th century, ÚjMűhely Gallery, Szentendre
2019
Filling Space with No Intentions at Kisterem, Budapest
2018
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Colour Research, Tornyai János Museum, Hódmezővásárhely
2017
Kisterem, Budapest
2016
Celebrating Colour – A selection of Ilona Keserü Ilona’s oeuvre at Zsolnay Negyed – Pécsi Galéria m21, Pécs
2014
Space of Colours, Vaszary Gallery, Balatonfüred
Kisterem, Budapest
Cangiante (cabinet exhibition), Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
2012
Cangiante-Colour Shift, Kieselbach Galéria, Budapest
Kisterem, Budapest
2011
Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava
Colour-shifting Bodies of Sound, Veszprémi Művészetek Háza, Veszprém
2008
Forest of Images, works made between 1982 and 2008, MODEM Arts Centre, Debrecen
2007
"Allegoria d'Amore", Városi Képtár, Pécs
2004
Approach, Tangle, Stream – An Investigation of Causes and Effects in Ilona Keserü Ilona’s Oeuvre at Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Old and New Pictures, MEO, Budapest
Small Pictures, Hungarian Cultural Center, London
2002
Old and New Paintings, Museum Gallery, Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs
Drawings and Works on Paper, Martyn Ferenc Gallery, Művészetek Háza, Pécs
2001
Pitture scelte 1984‒2001, Accademia d’Ungheria, Rome
Paintings from 1980, Municipal Art Museum, Győr
1997
Overlapping Images, Budapest Gallery, Budapest
All and After Images, Museum Gallery, Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs
1994
SZIMA Academic inauguration, 200 m2 mural, funeral parlour, Tata
1993
Paintings, Szombathely Picture Gallery, Szombathely
1992
Blick in die Zeit, Haus Ungarn, Berlin
1991
Color and Space, Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara
1989
Galerie Eremitage, Berlin
Paintings, Ernst Museum, Budapest
Floor image and paintings, Kecskemét Picture Gallery, Kecskemét
1988
After Images, Pécsi Kisgaléria, Pécs
1984
Drawings, silk screen prints, Hungarian Cultural Institute, Helsinki
1983
Collection exhibition of Ilona Keserü, Kunsthalle, Budapest
1982
Sound-Colour-Space (with László Vidovszky), Kunsthalle, Budapest
1980
Paintings, Uitz Hall, Dunaújváros
1978
Collection exhibition of Ilona Keserü, Csók István Picture Gallery, Székesfehérvár
1977
The Colour-Space of Ilona Keserü, Museum of Applied Art, Budapest
1973
Different paintings weekly, Csepel Gallery, Budapest
1972
Forming Space, colourful drawings, Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs
1969
Fényes Adolf Terem (with István Bencsik and János Major), Budapest
1967
Paintings, BME Vásárhelyi Kollégiumi Klub, Budapest
1964
Paintings, drawings, Jókai Klub, Budapest
1963
Paintings, drawings, Galleria Bars, Rome
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Folded – Unfolded, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea
From József Rippl-Rónai to Dóra Maurer. Selection from the Modern collection of the Municipal Gallery, Vaszary Gallery, Balatonfüred
Stories We Live With – Selection from the Somlói-Spengler Collection, Q Contemporary, Budapest
2021
Women in Abstraction, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao
Tracing the Fragments, Gold Ball, K11 Musea Art and Culture Centre, Hong Kong
Stephen Friedman Gallery at The London House of Modernity, London
2020
25 Years, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
2019
Iparterv 50, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
2018
Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York
2017
With the Eyes of Others, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York
Crossing Borders – The Grüner Collection, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava
2015
BOOKMARKS – Hungarian neo-avant garde and post-conceptual art from the late 1960s to the present. Art Cologne, Cologne; OFF-Biennale Budapest, MEO
2013
Ludwig Goes Pop + The East Side Story, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
BOOKMARKS – Hungarian neo-avant garde and post-conceptual art from the late 1960s to the present, Budapest
2012
Unesco International Women's Day, Unesco Headquarters, Paris
2007
Expressionist Tendencies in Hungarian Contemporary Art 1980 – 2007, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava
Aktuelle Kunst aus Ungarn, Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum, Ulm
2006
Tiltás és tűrés: A Fiatal Művészek Stúdiója 1966-os és 1967-es kiállítása, Ernst Museum, Budapest
2003
Distant proximity - Post-war Hungarian fine art in the collection if King St. Stephen Museum in Székesfehérvár, Muzeum umění Olomouc, Olomouc
2002
Vision – Image and Perception, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Situation Ungarn, Kunst – vor und nach der Wende, Max Liebermann-Haus am Brandenburger Tor, Berlin
2001
Krém, MEO Kortárs Művészeti Gyűjtemény, Budapest
Új mechanizmus, MEO Kortárs Művészeti Gyűjtemény, Budapest
2000
Our 20th Century, Csók István Picture Gallery, Székesfehérvár
Aspects, Positions, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Dialogue, Kunsthalle, Budapest
„The second sex”: Women's art in Hungary 1960–2000, Ernst Museum, Budapest
1999
Perspective, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Aspekte / Positionen, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
1998
Hungarian Presence, Zaheta, Warsaw
1997
Oil/Canvas, Kunsthalle, Budapest
1996
Opening exhibition, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
1994
Eighties – fine art, Ernst Museum, Budapest
1993
Variations on Pop Art, Ernst Museum, Budapest
1992
Hungarica. Arte ungherese degli anni ’80 e suoi origini, Museion, Arte Moderna, Bolzano Das offene Bild. Aspekte der Moderne in Europa nach 1945, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster
Sixties, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
1991
Kunst Europa ’91 Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Kunsthalle, Bremen
1989
Kunst heute in Ungarn, Ulm, Mannheim, Neue Galerie Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen
Contemporary Hungarian Art, Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul
1988
Seoul Olympic Arts Festival, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
Konstruktion – Struktur – Utopie, Haus der Ungarischen Kultur, Berlin
1987
Magical Works, Szombathely Picture Gallery, Szombathely; Budapest Gallery, Budapest
Aspekte ungarischer Malerei der Gegenwart, Stadthalle, Hagen; Stadthaus-Galerie, Münster
1985
Snapshot, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Contemporary Visual Art in Hungary. Eighteen artists from Hungary, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow
Peintres contemporains hongrois, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux
Drei Generationen Ungarischer Künstler, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
1982
L’art Hongrois Contemporain, Musée Cantini, Marseille; Palais de l’Europe, Menton;
Palais de Conservatoire, Lyon; La Maison des Congres et de la Culture, Clermont-Ferrand; l’Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris
1981
Ungersk Konst 1905‒1980, Liljevachs Konsthall, Stockholm; Konstmuseum, Göteborg; Konsthall, Malmö
New Sensibility I., Fészek Gallery, Budapest
1980
Hungarian Constructivism, Moderna Galerija, Zagreb
Iparterv 68‒80: Exhibition in the Ceremonial Hall of Iparterv, Budapest
39. Venice Biennial, Hungarian Pavilion, Venice
1979
Exposicion de Pintura Hungara del siglo XX, Museo Carillo Gil, Mexikó, Palacio de Cristal, Madrid; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
Ungarische Konstruktive Kunst, Kunstpalast Ehrenhof, Düsseldorf Arte ungherese contemporanea, Palazzo Reale, Milano Settimana ungherese a Firenze, Florence
1978
Wybrane eksponaty plastyki węgrierskiej XX wieku, Węgrierski Instytut Kultury, Warsaw
1977
Pictures, sculptures from 30 years of Hungarian Art, Budavári Palota „E”, Budapest
Collection of Ernő Kolozsváry, Picture Gallery, Győr
In the spirit of folk art, Katona József Museum, Kecskemét
Wystawa malastwa grafiki rzezby, Palac Kultury i Nauki, Warsaw
1976
Artisti ungheresi del ’900, Palazzo Reale, Milano
Nemzetközi Grafikai Biennále, Firenze
Textiles Appliques/Fabric Collage, Musée Chateau, Annecy
1974
Modern Hungarian Graphics, Pécs; Savaria Museum, Szombathely
L’ Art Hongrois du XX. siécle, Palais du Rhin, Strasbourg
20th Century Hungarian Art, Modern Hungarian Picture Gallery, Pécs
Ungarische Kunst der Gegenwart, Akademie der Bildende Künste, Vienna
Művészetelep kiállítása, Fondation Károlyi, Vence
2. Triennále India, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; Gallery, Teheran
1973
International Artists in Residence exhibition, Piestany
1971
Új művek, Műcsarnok, Budapest
Kísérleti kiállítások II., Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest
1970
Mozgás ’70, Modern Hungarian Picture Gallery, Pécs
Künstler International 1970, Galerie Baukunst, Cologne
Wystawa grupy artystow Wegierskich, Arsenal, Poznan; Galeria B.W.A., Sopot; Muzeum Pomorza, Szczecin; Galeria B.W.A., Wroclaw
1969
23 Künstler aus Ungarn, Kunsthalle, Bielefeld
Exhibition of Hungarian Fine Art, Oldenburg
Iparterv II., Iparterv Építőipari Vállalat, Budapest
1968
Danuvius 1968 „Medzinárodné Bienále Mladyh Vytvarnikov”, Dom Umenia, Bratislava
Iparterv I., Iparterv Építőipari Vállalat díszterme, Budapest
1966
Studió 66, Ernst Museum, Budapest
1963
Premio Gubbio 63, Municipality, Gubbio
1962
Artisti in Regola Campitelli, Circolo Culturale „Regola Campitelli”, Rome
1958
Autumn Exhibition, Hódmezővásárhely Museum, Hódmezővásárhely
WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington
Museum Susch, Susch
Ludwig Museum, Aachen
Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort Nationalgalerie, Berlin
National Museum of Modern Art, Seoul
Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Municipal Gallery – Kiscell Museum, Budapest
Institute Français, Budapest
Kassák Museum, Budapest
Petőfi Museum of Literature, Budapest
Museo e Pinacoteca Communali, Gubbio
Városi Művészeti Múzeum, Győr
Városi Képtár, Kamien-Pomorsky
Katona József Museum, Kecskemét
Bayer A. G. Kunstsammlung, Leverkusen
Pécsi Tudományegyetem, Pécs
Modern Magyar Képtár, Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs
Paksi Képtár, Paks
Muzeum Narodowe, Szczecin
King St. Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár
Ferenczy Museum, Szentendre
Szombathelyi Képtár, Szombathely
Fondation Károlyi, Vence
Zentralsparkasse und Kommerzialbank, Vienna
