COURAGE

savienojot kolekcijas

27 September - 10 November 1990

Franklin Furnace, New York

The exhibition presented 32O Hungarian, Polish, Czechoslovak, East-German, and Romanian publications from the period between 1956-199O. Since the selection was not confined to political publications in the literal sense, it included a remarkably rich array of materials from the perspective of artistic forms: self-publishing, political, cultural, and art books, book series, reviews (AL, AB HIRMONDO, BESZÉLŐ, Cseresorozat, TANGO, Világnézettségi Magazin etc., and publishers: ABC, ARTPOOL, HITEL Független Kiadó, KRAG, M.O, SzNOB International, SNTL, WSH etc./ and a number of cassettes, stickers, posters, pins, badges, T-shirts, arm badges, documention of various illegal street actions, etc.)

Curators: John P. Jacob and Tibor Várnagy

After the Gallery was opened, collecting focused on strengthening the neo-avantgarde material and purchasing relevant works of art from the Iparterv generation of neo-avantgarde artists. The museum has obtained works by Gyula Konkoly, László Lakner, and Endre Tót in this manner. Furthermore, works by Dóra Maurer were acquired, as well as two important compositions by Tibor Gáyor. At the same time, the museum purchased pictures by Sándor Bernáth(y) and Ákos Birkás, one from each. In this period, alongside the government and public bodies, the Soros Foundation also provided support for the fine arts.

After 1990, opportunities for new acquisition became limited: only a few works could be purchased, and only two times annually.

Documentary exhibition in the framework of the “Liberal Nights” cultural series of SZDSZ (Alliance of Free Democrats). Exhibition and slide-show of documents and artworks of non-official art of the 1970s in Hungary from the Artpool Archive, curated by György Galántai. (The title of the event referred to the dark period under the “regime” of György Aczél, the key figure of Hungarian cultural policy from the 1960s to the mid-1980s.) After the opening: Literary Program (organized by Ádám Tábor) followed by a discussion with people who had been active during the period.

In the 1990s, Ferenc Erős and András Kovács got more financial supports from Hungary and abroad. The most important support came from the Országos Tudományos Kutatási Alapprogramok (OTKA) – ”Hungarian Scientific Research Fund”. Thanks to this support, new interviews were done and half of the records were digitalized too.