The artist started his career in Veszprém and became a world-famous Hungarian cosmopolitan-artist.
It is not by chance that Veszprém and Italy were highlighted in this exhibition as regular visits to the Venice Biennale, organised by the House of Arts Veszprém, create an intellectual bridge between Hungarian and international contemporary art and establish continuity with Italian contemporary artists.
The exhibition in Veszprém is a selection of his oeuvre built up over fifty years. Showing the different periods which can be best grouped by the use of materials. Wood sculptures, plastic sculptures, objects, metal works (bronze, iron sheet, chrome steel, carbon steel), Dutch porcelain in the spirit of the Russian avantgarde, Russian constructivism.
Circles, rectangles, intersections, breakthroughs, transparencies, displacements and a combination of colours characterise the works. From the palm-sized to the public space dimension.
MADI
M: Movement/Motion
A: Abstraction
D: Dimension
I: Inventio - Invention.
With the incorporation of foreign words, the acronym, which can be understood in English as well as in Hungarian, sums up the exhibition Ages 75+ (plus). It helps to navigate through the diverse and multifaceted material. In the unfolding spectacle.
Despite the fact that István Ézsiás has not lived in Veszprém for decades, his heart is in Veszprém and Veszprém County. He still has many friends in our town. Institutionally he is connected to the House of Arts - his human gesture and generous character are proven by the fact that he donated several of his works to the collection of the House of Arts in Veszprém.
István Ézsiás's vitality and drive are admirable, and even people decades younger than him can envy his wealth of ideas and his enthusiasm, which flares up again and again. Wherever he feels that his works - not only his own, but also those of his friends - are warmly received, he immediately "repays" them by creating exhibitions and sculpture parks, often at his own expense. He has never been interested in material enrichment, but rather in spiritual enrichment. Although the constructivist, MADI approach is constant in his art, his spirit is open to everything new, interesting and valuable.
His vitality is linked to his eternal optimism and cheerfulness. He is a pure-hearted, sincere man who has worked for art as long as he has lived and will continue to work for art as long as he lives. The large-scale exhibition also includes works from the Eastern Europe Modern Gallery and International Sculpture Park in Italliska, founded by him and his wife Mária Muha and from the "Pannonia-Geometry for Széchenyi" sculpture park in Vinar (his home village).
The public in Veszprém also had the opportunity to see the works of Ézsiás presented at this year's exhibition of award-winning medal artists in the Sopron Lábasház, as well as his works in Szentendre, in the Stefánia Palace Sculpture Park in Budapest and in the Art in Process international exhibition in Berlin.
Artworks, documents and photographs from his symposium at the Hungarian Academy of Rome, where he had a scholarship and his solo exhibition at the Café Europe Centro di Arte Contemporanea gallery in Rome were also presented.
In the courtyard of the Dubniczay Palace colourful Constructivist steel sculptures were on display, in the rooms of the Castle Gallery small sculptures, pictures, medals, written documents, books, catalogues and in the corridor, Italian relics.
Last but not least, the exhibition spaces also housed documents from the organisation of art colonies and symposiums linked to Veszprém and the region (Veszprém Young Artists Studio, Ajka Aluminium Symposium, Bakonyi Workshop Wood Sculpture Art Colony and the RÁBA Steel Sculpture Art Colony in Győr, organised and run for more than 10 years).
