In this second instalment of Individuals, and taking advantage of the exhibition currently on at the MEAM (European Museum of Modern Art) in Barcelona, we’re going to talk about Istvan Sandorfi.
Istvan Sandorfi was without doubt a European reference point of the highest order for lovers of graphic design, hyperrealist painting and surrealism. A towering figure representing the passage from the middle of the twentieth century into the twenty-first.
But let’s give you a short summary of Sandorfi’s life so you have a fuller portrait of the man.
Istvan Sandorfi was born in Budapest, Hungary, on 12 June 1948 and died in Paris, France, on 26 December 2007.
The son of a director of the Hungarian arm of an American company, his father was sentenced to five years in prison on espionage charges in 1950.
He left Hungary in 1956 for Germany, fleeing the Soviet tanks. It was there, in post-war Germany, that his life began.
The adjectives that best define his personality are uncompromising and self-taught.
His work reflects it: a body of work turned in on itself, with an emphasis on systematic self-portraits of a paranoid bent and of undeniable expressive power.
After a spell painting his daughters, by the midpoint of his career as a painter his art shifted towards gentler work, dwelling on the bodies of the models he painted in his studio.
Bodies wrapped in sheets, sighs of fabric over skin, all with a colour palette worthy of the very best graphic designers, rich and chosen with great wisdom.
Personally I see traces of the photographer Jan Saudek in him, born in Prague in 1935 — though I’ve no way of knowing whether either was aware of the other’s work.
When?
Have I managed to spark your curiosity about this artist? If the answer is yes, we’re doubly in luck: first for having introduced you to an artist you didn’t know, and second because from 22 September until November we’ll be able to see a retrospective exhibition in Barcelona, at the aforementioned MEAM.
140 of his large-format works are expected to be on show, a body of work that will fill the whole of Palau Gomis. This retrospective will feature almost all the work from the first half of his career (the blue period), plus a great deal from his pink period and a good part of the artist’s final phase.
Wonderfully, the organisers have had the brilliant idea of recreating Sandorfi’s studio on the third floor, with genuine pieces from his workshop and original paintings. It’s in this space that some photographs will be shown, along with hangers holding the kimonos he always put on to paint.
At the studio quite a few of us designers love art in general and we’re thinking of making a little work-and-pleasure trip to the museum to soak up this artist’s work in person.
The hope is that this exhibition will once again bring attention to a figure who exhibited in galleries all over the world during the 80s and 90s before slipping into the shadows, waiting for us to look again with fresh eyes and be struck by the force and power of this artist and his work.
Useful details
Where: Museu Europeu d’Art Modern (MEAM)
C/ Barra de Ferro 5 – 08003 Barcelona
When: From 22 September until November
Opening hours and days:
The MEAM is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 20:00.
The museum is closed on:
Every Monday.
1 January, 25 and 26 December.
Recommended for:
- Lovers of painting
- Graphic design enthusiasts
- Design professionals
- Everyone at the graphic design studio
More info: European Museum of Modern Art
