The Hungarian Cultural Centre London has this week announced the first group exhibition dedicated to the work of eight emerging Hungarian artists taught by the iconic Hungarian artist, Dóra Maurer. The participating artists include Mária Chilf, Márton Cserny, Attila Csörgő, Tamás Jovánovics, Barbara Nagy, Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák, András Wolsky and András Zalavári. The exhibition was firstly presented at the Hungarian Embassy in London on the 29th and was open by appointment. This week, the exhibition will officially open to the public at David Kovats Gallery’s pop-up space from 12 August and on view until 19 September 2021 at 28-32 Shelton St, London WC2H 9JE.

Dóra Maurer (born in 1937, in Budapest) is an iconic Hungarian artist whose work has spanned over the past 50 years. As an artist, Dóra has worked with almost every medium, such as film, sculpture, photography, painting, or performance. After finishing her studies at the Painting and Graphic Faculties of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in 1961, her career started to rise both in Hungary and abroad. At the same time, Maurer had a very strong international network and embraced an independent path but engaging with independent cultural communities which proactively shared created and presented their work outside of the official Hungarian system during the socialist period. Her work has been exhibited, recognised and celebrated around the world including at the Tate Modern museum, which hosted the largest UK exhibition of the artist to date.

As a professor, her activity in art pedagogy shaped and influenced generations of artists from the 1970s until today. She began her teaching career in the 1990s, in the most prestigious institutions in Hungary and also abroad. Between 1987 and 1991, she was a guest professor at the College of Applied Arts in Budapest (today Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design), where she lectured on Visual Experiments. She returned to the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts as a senior lecturer at the Painting Faculty in 1990. Additionally, from 1998 she was teaching at the University of Pécs and from 1999 at the Internat Sommerakademie in Salzburg. Today, she is still an active member of the Hungarian Doctoral Council. She also earned the Széchenyi Professor Award for her pedagogical achievements.

The exhibition Disciples of Dóra Maurer aims to present the richness of Hungarian art by showcasing artists who work with diverse mediums and styles, growing from the workshop of an engaged teacher and influential artist who shaped not only Hungarian art, but global art in general. Dóra Maurer’s unique approach provided an open environment for expression and raised the profile of multiple artists of different generations including the artists of this group show.

Through the exhibition, the visitor can explore a rich variety of themes, materials and styles while discovering the tactics, rhythms and patterns which link all works together. Although all artists and artworks are very diverse and different at first impression, looking more closely, we can recognize a rhythm as a repetitive motif.

This presentation gives a clear and overall insight into the development of Hungarian contemporary art. Dóra Maurer is the key reference of the exhibition as the historical artist who shaped Hungarian art as we know it today but also as the teacher who raised generations of artists who continue her legacy and enrich the national art scene. Maurer’s democratic and open teaching style defines the work of the presented artists. Her international connections and knowledge is reflected in the artworks of this exhibition. Thanks to her efforts to introduce international movements to her students, we understand why Dóra’s and her students’ work can be presented in a local but also a global context.

The generation of Maurer has already been recognized and discovered by the international art market, however, artists stepping in the footsteps of their masters in quality and importance are still unknown to the international audience and this is what the Hungarian Cultural Centre along with its partners try to bring to light. The participating artists define the landscape of Hungarian contemporary art and engrave their legacy to the national heritage. The purpose of the exhibition is to draw international attention to contemporary Hungarian art and present its specialities, qualities and value.

‘What makes a great artist an inspiring teacher? The exhibition attempts to answer this question by showing how an outstanding Hungarian visual artist is not only able to lift generations of artists with her knowledge and vision of the world but can also create a connection between Hungarian and international art. This display carries on the legacy of the master’s show at Tate Modern and I hope it will open the doors for many remarkable Hungarian contemporary artists to introduce themselves for art lovers and experts in London.’, emphasizes Máté Vincze, director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre.

‘I tend to believe that if her life-work as an artist was predestined to introduce Hungary to the World as home to some amazing artistic talents, her career as an educator was meant to make sure that the World is reminded of that from time to time. The exhibition Disciples of Dóra Maurer is a wonderful effort to enforce the latter, while it is also a tribute to one of the greatest living artists and art educators of our time.’, says Attila Ledényi, Founder & Director of Art Market Budapest, Central and Eastern Europe’s leading international art fair.