László Károly CollectionFrom the Academy to Pop Art

The collection, which now numbers two hundred works, reflects the wide-ranging interests of art collector Károly László. The earliest work on display is Sándor Bihari's Sunset in the Great Plain, an early realist style of Hungarian landscape painting. It is a long way from this work to the Pop Art compositions now in Veszprém. This path can be followed in the exhibition. The new title of the collection refers to this: From the Academy to Pop Art - Works and Styles from the 20th Century.

Most of the paintings, sculptures and graphics are the work of Hungarian artists. József Rippl-Rónai, Vilmos Aba-Novák, Pál Molnár C., János Andrássy Kurta are the "classically modern" artists of the 20th century. Constructivism and the giants of the Bauhaus are prominent in the collection. Lajos Kassák's four pictorial architectures are on display, while László Moholy-Nagy, a leading figure in the art world is represented with prints and photographs. István Beöthy's name has been little known in Hungary for a long time, even though he was regarded in Western Europe as a major, school creating sculptor and art theoretician. Most of his works are currently on display in Hungary in the László Károly Collection in Veszprém.

Among the new additions are two works by Viktor Vasarely, which are on show in the current exhibition. Close to the op-art he represents are the kinetic works that enrich the foreign collection of the László Károly Collection. They light up, flicker, rotate, qualities that were unique in their time, in the 1960s, and as such their creators can be considered pioneers of contemporary electronic art.

The László Károly Collection has become fresher and more exciting with a new grouping of works and a shift of emphasis, and it presents a renewed, colourful and varied snapshot of the art of the 20th century.

Curator: László Hegyeshalmi

Co-curators: Gábor Áfrány, Viktória Herth