The Gross Arnold Gallery — which manages the artist’s estate and intellectual legacy under the direction of his son, Gross András — has as its principal mission the preservation of the artist’s memory. Since the cozy little venue on Bartók Béla út opened in 2014, the Gross Arnold collection has been enriched with countless interesting graphic works, striving to give an ever fuller, more comprehensive picture of Gross Arnold’s art and oeuvre.
The public knows the popular master of graphic art chiefly for his individually printed, meticulous etchings colored with Gross’s distinctive special technique. The new exhibition at the ARNOLDO gallery-café focuses on the early, black-and-white period of the graphic artist honored with the Artist of the Nation award — before his color technique matured — and on his unique works. Alongside the first experimental pieces of colored etching, the show presents an intriguing proof print supplemented in pencil, freely drawn ink drawings, and a hitherto unknown work: the pastel-and-watercolor college drawing entitled End of a Garden in Óbuda (Óbudai kertvége), received a few years ago from his former fellow student, graphic artist Töreky Ferenc, which was exhibited at the Műcsarnok in 1950.
“My master Barcsay Jenő used to come up to see me in the old days and look at my drawings… On one occasion, bending over an etching, he said: Do you know that graphic art is black and white? — Until now it indeed was, I replied, but now there is a color kind as well.” G.A.
“His original intention was to become a painter. A painterly way of thinking can be felt in his early graphic works. His landscape etchings of the 1950s are composed according to the rules of “classical” landscape painting. In these landscape etchings he brought painterly beauty into the work through the highly sensitive, meticulous, rich working of the copper plate. What was missing, however, was color. Traditional etching, after all, is made with a single printing ink, usually black or brownish in tone. Hand-coloring the printed graphic — although it had been an accepted solution in book illustration for several hundred years — somehow still tastes of the “coloring book.” He used this method a few times on landscapes made with etching and linocut in the fifties, but he then resolved the contradiction between the painterly and the graphic with a highly distinctive technique of his own. Though the patent is not his (it belongs to Sir William Blake), it was he who spread it in Hungarian graphic art.”
– Pogány Gábor
At the opening, art historian Kratochwill Mimi — a former staff member of the Műcsarnok, and Arnold’s contemporary and friend — will revive their shared memories, and thanks to her generosity we are also showing a few small early works at the exhibition.
The exhibition is financed from the sale of limited-edition postcards published for this occasion.
The exhibition is part of the Month of Graphic Arts program series.
Opening: Thursday, April 5, 2018, 6 p.m. Introduction and opening remarks by art historian Kratochwill Mimi. Due to the capacity of the venue, attendance at the opening requires registration; you can register for the event at arnoldogaleria@gmail.com.
The exhibition is open from April 6 to May 12, 2018, during the gallery’s opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Further information – ARNOLDO gallery-café: 1111 Budapest, Bartók Béla út 46.
Gross András / 0670/3387001 / arnoldogaleria@gmail.com
Event – https://www.facebook.com/events/2079568075640438/
