Spring 2024 is a season of abundant planning for us, as we will be celebrating several anniversaries in the near future. This year, on September 20, the ARNOLDO gallery-café turns 10; November 25, 2024 would have been the 95th birthday of our founder, Gross Arnold; and January 22, 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of his death. Around these milestone anniversaries we are planning several exciting programs, a new installation, and an exhibition series inviting visitors on a magical journey — we will share more news about these later.
The documentary film shot by Péter Pál Tóth for the Hungarian Academy of Arts will soon be completed; in it, we also present several previously unpublished recordings, archival materials, and documents from the Gross Arnold archive. In the one-hour film, Emese Révész, Erzsébet Schäffer, Anna Ábrahám, Balázs Feledy, Sándor Gajzágó Jr., Imre Szemethy, and Gross András remember Gross Arnold. The film will later be shown on the M4 channel.
On May 3–4, we are preparing a surprise creative program and a special cake for the Eleven Tavasz (Living Spring) event.
In August, to reach out to younger audiences, the Enchanted Forest (Varázserdő) will be created for ArtGarden, the renewed art venue of the Sziget Festival — a joint contemporary art installation by Karina Mendreczky and Katalin Kortmann-Járay, winners of this year’s Esterházy Art Award, and the Gross Arnold gallery. For all of us wearied by the almost unbearable weight of posthuman times pressing on our shoulders, this installation evoking a strange world offers a nostalgic-surreal refuge, where, breaking away from the immediate present, we can dwell in the dimensions of past and future at once — among human-faced flowers, magical mushrooms, odd birds, and people chilling about — touching and shaping a sensitive, poetic, and privately mythological vision of the future. Alongside the installation, in the Bartók Negyed tent, we will welcome festival-goers with Gross Arnold 95 postcard coloring sheets based on his drawings.
On September 20, we are throwing a fabulous birthday house party at the Arnoldo, where the music will be selected by our friend DJ Bem, a.k.a. Matild, from his favorite vinyl records — just like at the opening 10 years ago.
During the week of November 25–30, as part of the 95th birthday promotion, everything will be available at 95% of its price.
Between December 2 and 18, we will open our chamber exhibition Gross 95 – Journeys to Real and Imaginary Landscapes (Gross 95 – utazások valós és képzeletbeli tájakra) in the KultPont Community Space next door, presenting the fabulous stations of the Arnoldian journeys — from the early, monochrome, true-to-nature landscapes, through the meticulous, multidimensional fantasy dioramas, to the big cities bustling with countless figures.
Between January 10 and 31, 2025, we will present the next, expanded version of the exhibition Gross 95 – Journeys to Real and Imaginary Landscapes in the upstairs gallery of the Flesch Center in Mosonmagyaróvár.
Beyond the jubilee plans and programs, the world of ARNOLDO — built with much loving work and care — awaits you on ordinary days as well: stepping inside, everyone finds themselves in a truly homelike setting. For the wonderful pictures on the walls radiating peace and intimacy, for our ever-fresh weekly cake offerings, and for our wide selection of cold and hot drinks, including our delicious homemade ginger tea, visit our shop on Bartók Béla út, where our terrace welcomes our dear guests until the end of October.
We recently had the opportunity to buy back several Gross Arnold works, including some beautiful etchings, which we are now offering for sale. You can browse the gallery’s current selection here: https://issuu.com/arnoldogaleria/docs/katal_gus2024_04
If any of the works has caught your interest, they can be viewed and purchased in person at the gallery, or you can inquire and place orders by phone or e-mail.
With warm regards, Gross András, gallery director
