Imre Bak
Citations IV
Artist
Imre Bak
(1939, Budapest - 2022, Budapest), Hungarian
Original Title
Citations IV
Date1983
Mediumsilkscreen on paper
Dimensions73 × 103 cm
Classificationsprints
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionImre Bak is a prominent figure of the Hungarian neo-avantgarde whose career is linked to the art groups Iparterv and Budapesti műhely. Bak’s oeuvre draws on the legacies of the modernist avantgarde and is defined by rational geometric abstraction, which he sees as a world of forms and colors in infinite space. During the 1960s, he created works in the vein of minimalism and hard-edge painting, fusing rational geometric systematism with more sentimental lyrical and folkloric elements. In 1971, following a stay in Germany, he temporarily abandoned painting to engage with more conceptual and dematerialized art, working with photographs, textual images, and smaller objects. He also developed an interest in conceptualism and semiotic theory, which led him to explore the relations between form, color, and text in the production of cultural meaning. In the early 1980s, under the influence of postmodernist eclecticism, he began to incorporate playful as well as narrational and ornamental qualities into his artworks. His later work is marked by increased reductionism, monumentality, and spatial illusionism inspired by postmodern architecture.
Citations IV (1983) was created during the 1980s, when Bak’s work idiosyncratically engaged with new postmodernist tendencies in painting. In this piece, his distinctive geometric aesthetic develops a playfully eclectic dimension, thematizing complexity and the layering of systems. His use of quotation can also be understood as a revision of his prior work as well as geometric modernism more generally, which he viewed as an archive of elements open to countless novel possibilities.
Imre Bak (*1939, Budapest) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1958 to 1963. In the 1960s and 1970s, he took part in illegal exhibitions in Hungary and developed ties with like-minded artists from Central and East-Central Europe. In 1971, he received a residency scholarship in Essen which included an extensive exhibition at the Folkwang Museum alongside fellow Hungarian artist György Jovánovics. His work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1986. Bak’s art is known worldwide and is held in numerous public collections including the Tate Modern in London, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest. Bak is also a laureate of the Munkácsy Mihály Prize (1988) and the Gottfried Herder Prize (1998).
Citations IV (1983) was created during the 1980s, when Bak’s work idiosyncratically engaged with new postmodernist tendencies in painting. In this piece, his distinctive geometric aesthetic develops a playfully eclectic dimension, thematizing complexity and the layering of systems. His use of quotation can also be understood as a revision of his prior work as well as geometric modernism more generally, which he viewed as an archive of elements open to countless novel possibilities.
Imre Bak (*1939, Budapest) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1958 to 1963. In the 1960s and 1970s, he took part in illegal exhibitions in Hungary and developed ties with like-minded artists from Central and East-Central Europe. In 1971, he received a residency scholarship in Essen which included an extensive exhibition at the Folkwang Museum alongside fellow Hungarian artist György Jovánovics. His work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1986. Bak’s art is known worldwide and is held in numerous public collections including the Tate Modern in London, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest. Bak is also a laureate of the Munkácsy Mihály Prize (1988) and the Gottfried Herder Prize (1998).
