Ice Age

Exhibition of Mária Lugossy

Curator:Marianna Mayer Ever since the start of her career as a constructivist artist, Mária Lugossy's highly individual sculpture has been characterized by the use of different materials (metal, glass, granite) in connection with the consistent progress of her creative periods, spectacular technical solutions, and deeply humane, thoghtful works that inquire into the great questions of history and existence. Her emotional approach and female grace soften the hardness of granite, the high seriousness of both her small and monumental public sculpture.
On this occasion, the artist uses large granite blocks to build special spaces in three of Kunsthalle's rooms. In the first room geometrically arranged inclusions are hidden in stone blocks that stand on iron plates immersed in turquoise liquid: they allude to the pristine, untouched world before civilization. The next room represents the self-destructive tendencies of civilization, while the polluted liquids and lifeless stones in the third room display a vision after the passing of humankind.
The monograph published on the occasion of the exhibition introduces in Hungarian, English and French the work of the artist who has won many prizes and received several honours, and is well-known and recognized in both the Hungarian and the international glass-art scene. The volume covers the three decades of Lugossy's oeuvre ranging from the small sculpture to the monumental public statues, and includes a photo-documentation of cca. 100 pieces.
The studies were written by János Csokits, Márta Kovalovszky, Péter Kovács, with an introduction by Serge Lechazynski. The volume is designed by Johanna Bárd, and edited by Marianna Mayer, the exhibition's curator.