Back To Another Century

At the beginning of the month I visited the current (at that time) exhibition. As always I had no clue what I'm going to see, which is the best strategy in my opinion. When I entered the exhibition and saw it's going to be a travel back in time, was really glad.

It's not going to happen, but I think if someone would place a camera at the entrance and capture the face of the visitors, when they have the first look at the exhibition room, and merge those short videos together, it could get a really interesting and meaningful, emotional video.

Back To Another Century.jpg

So what I visited was a solo exhibition of Zoltán Nurisdány, a very talented painter, who lived between 1925 and 1974 and his style reflects the life of the 20th century.

When I stepped into the exhibition room and had a look at the paintings, knew right away going through the paintings will be like a trip back to the 20th or maybe even 19th century. It was a happy moment though as it's been ages since I have last seen such paintings. For me, such an experience is relaxing. Those times give me a lot of calms, even though I know those were anything but calm times.

Look at the colorful offer. How can you not be excited?

Zoltán Nurisdány - 1965

Prior to entering the gallery, I knew nothing about the artist, so seeing a series of self portraits helped me have a slight idea about the painter.

Zoltán Nurisdány - 1950

In a way, it's funny to see self portraits. I'm always wondering if the painter really looked like in the painting. If you think of it, no one is ever satisfied with how they look, so imagine the painter, looking at the painting and making adjustments endlessly, because he's not satisfied with it. When are you considering the painting finished? Big question and hard to get an answer to it.

Mimi - 1960

What I love about the artist's style so far is the simplicity. Nothing fancy and this makes the artworks great in my eyes. Look at the facial expression of Mimi. Love it.

Judit - Juli - 1968

It's possible we're looking at the artist's daughter, but I don't have any information in this regard. It's just my guess that Mimi could be his wife and the young lady in the painting above, his daughter. Regardless, look at it. Simplicity is not a random thing, it characterizes most of the portraits.

Judit 02 -1974

Here the style changes a little. It's the same young lady you see in the previous painting, but the style is more medieval in my eyes. I like it though as it shows the artist is capable of teleporting people in a different century. It's unique.

In Memoriam - 1962

In memoriam, but we don't know who exactly, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. We're not here to seek similarity between the model and the portrait. We're here to enjoy the painting and it's great in my opinion. Simple lines, nothing complicated, no blatant colors.

Klára Bencze Industrial Designer - 1966

The same style and simplicity you see in the previous photos.

If you've thought Zoltán Nurisdány knows only one style, you're wrong. Here's a totally different style. Simplicity is present here as well, but the style is very different.

Edit - 1973

And here's another style, a totally different one. I'd call it rough, but not in a bad way. Here's I'm wondering what the model said, what was her opinion after seeing the painting and if she had a say in it. I guess this is a detail we'll never know.

You might be wondering if the artist was focusing on portraits. The answer is no, there were still life paintings as well, you'll see, but there was a set of portraits and I thought it's best to post them one after the other for you to see the difference between styles. I don't know if it's a good idea in your eyes too, or it's just me. It doesn't matter, enjoy the paintings.

Landscape of Marosfalva - 1965

Typical village landscape, with small houses. You can see the same simplicity as in case of the portraits, just in a different way.

Vineyard of Szigliget - 1970

Another detail that I need to point out here is the frames. I've seen thousands of paintings and have stated this before. The right frame can add a lot to the artwork, just as the wrong one can take away half of the value. Obviously we all have our preferences and tastes, but it has to be a certain harmony between the painting and the frame. I can't complain here, at this exhibition the frames were chosen carefully, so no value is lost in this regard.

Now let's see which one is your favorite, if you have one at all.

If I were to choose, I'd choose Mimi, Judit 02, In Memoriam and Edit.

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