A penchant for abstraction when it comes to complex social conditions, a drive to effect change, and a resilience of analysis and representation are all characteristic of Hungary’s art scene since the 1960s, and especially of its “abstract artists.”

The abstracted visual language of Hungarian artists is currently being thematized by the Künstlerhaus in the exhibition “Ábstract Hungary” by Ákos Ezer, a painter who thematically processes the present-day reality in his home country. This theme is, in fact, a revival, for already in the exhibition year 2017 the venue presented the group exhibition “Abstract Hungary.” With a sweeping selection of twenty-four Hungarian artists, including Imre Bak, Tamás Kaszás, Dóra Maurer, and Zsolt Tibor, the show was devoted to methods of abstraction of varying dialogical nature. The exhibition represented a more broad narrative blueprint of the much discussed term “abstraction” and showed both established and aspiring artistic positions, some of which were exhibited there in Austria for the first time.

Now an exhibition catalogue is being published which expands these two eponymous projects, seeking to consolidate the abstracted view of Hungary.