István Nádler

István Nádler finished his studies at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts’ Painting Department in 1963. He furthered his education in the Zugló Circle. In 1968 and 1968, he participated in the Iparterv exhibitions.

In the 1960s, he worked on colourful and dynamic hard-edge paintings. During the following decade, he conducted pictorial experiments – relying on a reduced set of forms – dealing with the phenomena of music and the spatiality of geometry. This was followed by a shift towards gestural painting, in which points of intersections between the opposing forces of horizontal and vertical movements and the notion of harmony played a central role. References to literature, music, the Bible and the history of art are crucial in his work.

“Nádler’s entire oeuvre could be described as a search for an imaginary form that condenses the world into itself. He explores the delicate balance of opposing tensions throughout his work, seeking perspectives and constellations in which seemingly mutually exclusive qualities intertwine and dissolve – universal and concrete, spiritual and sensual, personal and impersonal, open and closed, abstract and objective, geometric and expressive, form and gesture, plane and space, above and below, outside and inside, visible and invisible, material and immaterial. ” – writes art historian, Dávid Fehér.

Nádler is a winner of the Kossuth Prize and a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts. His paintings can be found in the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Hungarian National Gallery, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

 

Katalin Keserü