If I ask you to think of a famous nude painting, you will more than likely imagine a painting of a woman who is nude or nearly nude. Maybe Sandro Botticelli’s masterful “The Birth of Venus”, a full-figured body by Rubens or even Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” come to mind. This makes sense because throughout the history of art the female body has been portrayed more often than the male body in the nude format. The latest exhibition at the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, however, is focusing on the exact opposite, the male nude.

Before Playboy or nude photographs, there existed many titillating images of women barely dressed or completely undressed and these hung in the homes of the wealthiest patrons in plain view. These were acceptable for display in their salons and studies because of their mythological or religious subject matter. Mythological figures include Danae who is showered with gold coins or Venus who is often depicted brushing her hair or looking in the mirror. Religious figures include Bathsheba bathing or Susanna being spied upon by the elders. These women are depicted in a voyeuristic way, as they seem unaware of being watched. The female nude later became a subject matter in its own right that artists tried faithfully to capture on canvas and in stone or bronze. These works usually have what is termed a “male gaze”.

In classical antiquity the male body was a subject matter that was thoroughly explored. Later, however, the male body was mostly out of sight, usually hidden in full clothing or even armor, with the exception of a few mythological images or Christian martyrs.

This fascinating exhibition is going to explore the reasons for this change, including how the role of men adapted and other sociological reasons, by examining the works of art that depict the male body. It will look at how male artists depict their own bodies and what this reflects. And it will examine how women artists depict the male nude (the “female gaze”), something which has only been possible in more recent times since women artists were often barred from access to nude models in the past.

Beginning about 1900 in turn-of-the-century Vienna, the exhibition then continues through the 20^th and 21^st centuries examining the way the artists own identities and their relationship to the model changed. Eventually, the male nude also gains footing as an erotic image and one that can be viewed with a “gaze of desire”.

Works by artists such as Egon Schiele, Lovis Corinth, Erich Heckel, Robert Mapplethorpe, Oskar Kokoschka, Louise Bourgeois, Eduard Munch, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, and Gilbert & George will be included in the exhibition.

“The Naked Man” exhibition is possible in cooperation with the LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, who hosted an exhibition prior to this one. The Ludwig Museum of Budapest’s exhibition will incorporate more works by Central and Eastern European artists. It can be seen until June 30.

The Ludwig Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am until 6 pm. It is located at Komor Marcell u. 1 and can be reached by metro and bus (see the website for more details).

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Find cheap apartments in Budapest and take the train or bus to the Ludwig Museum to see this enthralling exhibition.

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It was during the nineteenth century with the rise and expansion of the movement known as Romanticism, when it began to raise the artist�s relationship with its environment. This reflection, of course, came from the creators. Poets, painters, musicians and artisans are no longer serving an elite caste (as was it was in the previous centuries) in exchange for a meager patronage. When they went apart from the dependency, the artists took on another role and aspire to become intermediaries between tangible realities and the unknown beyond of which they wish to be its translators. Artists claimed to be magician, demiurge,  beings that acted as a guide border between the prosaic everyday life and beyond where the spirituality lies.

On this view, the bohemia, of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, was strengthened. Fantasy, dreamlike and surrealism were opening the way. Artists claimed their freedom and called themselves authentic Heros. That means that the creator is the one that opens doors to a different reality than the others simply don’t know, which also included that freedom, sometimes that detachment tied them to the margins of society. Even like that, the artist rise, with a self-imposed aura that stands in the center, not only of the creation, but becoming an official translator of the intricacies and mysteries of the world.

Well, with this concept (which may include various genres, trends and periods), the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, devoted to contemporary art, showcases an exhibition, which opens on the 6^th of July the 21^st of October, called “The Hero, The Heroine And The Author” And even though at the moment I am writing this text there are no many details about the size of the exhibition, you can be sure that the exhibition will be just great. Here is the link of the exhibition where you can find practical information and even purchase tickets via online: http://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=803&menuId=44

Budapest opens to modernity with a strong, cultural exhibition of scandal and envy, as a macro festival happen one after the other. If during spring the city is filled with concerts, exhibitions and street shows, during early summer, the capital of Hungary is shaken with film series, classic outdoor activities in its parks, sporting events and other good cultural activities the city has to offer. So Budapest is a favorite among seasoned travelers coming from anywhere in the world: not only because is nourished by a rich cultural legacy, but also because of the importance of theater, music and sport in contemporary society try to answer this demand. In this blog we frequently comment about it.

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Remember that the peak season for this part of Europe begins in early summer and extends well into the autumn, as the exhibition in question, so it is advisable to book Budapest apartments in advance because the high occupancy and that last minute rush is never good.

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Until the 10^th of June the Ludwig Museum in Budapest exhibits “The Space of the Image”, which defines the conceptual aspects of the works by János Megyik. The exhibition takes questions that Megyik contantly asked himself about art and the place of painting, since his great work was on the edges of the painting, sculpture and architecture modeling of structures and painted panels.

The exhibition examines the work of Megyick and his research focused on spatiality, asking how to do the painting on the table in the world Megyick to create a three dimensional model. To answer this question, the exhibition explores its wooden buildings, frames, cardboard reliefs and plaques with stain of his last period as an architect.

Megyik János was born in Szolnok, Hungary in 1938. Between 1950 and 1954 he studied painting with Károly Harmos in Rev Komarno in Slovakia. In 1954 he moved his residence to Budapest and studied for two years at the Institute of Fine Arts, Applied Arts and in 1956 immigrated to Vienna. There he studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts where he met Andersen, Dobrowsky and Boeckl.

In 1963 he began studying painting on the table and the reflection that produces three-dimensional models, being heavily influenced by studies of projective geometry. A decade later he used his space studies to create metal sculptures, a material that he changed for the wood years later, while including interesting architectural plans to achieve them.

In 1972, he exhibited his work Construction of Nothing done with Alpár Bujdoso at the First Hungarian Conference Workshop held in Marly le Roi. Projective geometry and subjectivity of the planes were the essence of his artwork, especially in his relief work with steel plates that dominated his work in the 90�s, playing with geometric shapes and perspective in space.

The year 1977 he made photograms for his sculptures in wood. His enormous capacity to investigate the figure, the planes and movement, led him to work with the human figure in the 80�s, when he moved to New York to continue studying. His eyes from the human body and the plasma in three-dimensional sculpture with fine ribs, gave the picture motion, despite the rigidity of the material.

In 1991 he was awarded with the Munkácsy Prize in recognition of his work and contribution to culture. In the late 90 he started working in Kötcse, province of Somogy and traveled to Rome to study with a grant from the Hungarian Academy.

János Megyik has worked and experimented with his work freely and poetic geometry. Its delicate sculptures, made with perfection and thoroughness is one of the most interesting of the twentieth century, not only because it experiences forms, but because it works with innovative materials such as large sculptures made by wood.

For more information: http://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=800&menuId=44

Nancy Guzman

A good time to walk along the banks of the Danube is the spring, so book apartments in Budapest in advance and forget the stress by attending the great cultural activities about János Megyik.

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The 18th of November, the Budapest Ludwig Museum opens the exhibition of works by the Hungarian artist Rita Ackermann. The exhibition is curated by Kata Oltai, who has organized it around her latest works which are juxtaposed with some of her early works, within the space given to the Museum of Hungarian artists who have so far been not very well-known.

Rita Ackermann was born in Budapest in 1968. She studied Fine Arts in Hungary. In the late 90�s she moved to New York, where she lives and works today. She started her career as a painter and then evolved to complex visual arts, influenced by trends and discussions on art in the United States and her studies at the School of Art in New York. Her complex works reflect her own transformations and became one of the favorites of the underground of New York at the end of the twentieth century.

Her works, interestingly combine different art languages. Music, image and plastic, which adds a variety of languages and particular expressions, typical of the youth or certain social classes that give her a sense of wholeness and content on the world around New York, as a summary of all cultures.

Her series of drawings and collages with pieces of poetic texts reflect the search for answers from a youth that lost its generous dreams for humanity and is now plunged into drugs, alcohol and promiscuous sex, almost like a collective suicide. She is not looking to respond to the existential anxiety with her work. Rather there are only questions, not interpretations or social criticism. Those tasks are left to the viewer, looking respond to and interpret the uncertainties about his/her generation.

Her perspective and story focuses on fertility and pornography. They are diametrically opposed to contrast the procreation and pleasure, in socioculturally terms they are decoupled. Ackermann tries to betray the location of a generation immersed in a society, which is constantly bombarded with messages about pleasure, but when people dare to do what the messages say, thy get punished by the law. This was reflected in her most interesting work Escorpionun, which juxtaposes images and texts.

This is the first stage of work, which opened the way to the stage where Ackermann examines art and the historical process contained and expressed through art, focusing on traditions and concepts of European painting, in contradiction to the U.S. . An interesting look that goes to the debate with the history of art.

Ackermann�s work at the Ludwig is an interesting exhibition to appreciate, this symbolic imaginaries of the Hungarian artist, because all of them are her vision of two worlds, the origin and the arts and everyday life.

For more information http://ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=764&menuId=44

Nancy Guzman

The Danube, wide avenues, culture, romance and coffee is what you need for this fall. Just rent apartments in Budapest and come to enjoy the best moments of your life.

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Translated by: Hans
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One of the most important retrospective exhibitions of the work of the artist, architect and urban planner, Yona Friedman, opens on the 28^th of October 28 at Ludwig Museum in Budapest. This exhibition, which will be on display until the 8^th of January 2012, covers theoretical processes, artwork, projects and drawings by Friedman.

The Exhibition is organized to cover almost all relevant aspects of this artist, including the development of his work as an architect, urban planner and the theoretical approaches that have become a required source for young artists and architects who produce works using as a stage the public space or are worried about it and the link of them with the individuals.

Yona Friedman was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1923. He is considered one of the most important living contemporary artists in this country, despite his French nationality. He was famous for his anticipating theories about urbanism and also for building interesting concepts that revolutionized the way we see the development of cities and human settlements, raiding models based on sustainability. He also explored the animated film and design.

He is considered the father of utopian architecture; his proposals are always placed in areas bordering the creation and theory, even leaving many of his statements in an “unsolvable” state in terms of technical and practical aspects. Hence the name of utopian architecture.

During the World War II, he managed to flee from the Nazi repression and moved to the city of Haifa, Israel, where he stayed for over a decade. In 1957 he was finally transferred to Paris where he became a citizen in 1966.

In 1956 he participated in the 10^th International Congress of Modern Architecture in Dubrovnik with his “Manifesto of the mobile architecture”, revolutionizing the art scene with his perspective on the creation of cities, where inhabitants can enjoy the freedom of movement, breaking with the idea of rigid architectural structure.

Among the applications or forms of materialization of the “mobile architecture” he proposes the concept of “Space City”, which raised the possibility of building mobile and adaptable spaces, detachable and changeable for their own inhabitants. A revolutionary idea of social architecture, that ended up permeating his entire career and his work.

In 1958 he founded the research group Mobile Architecture (GEAM), not for long, but with a short productive life, the group was dissolved in 1962, being a fundamental reference for the process of change and transformation in the early 60�s.

Among his most important works are the Cylindrical Shelers a construction proposal for immigrants, done in 1953, Span-Over notebook in 1958, where he developed his manifesto Mobile Architecture and in 1989 the Science Museum of La Villette in Paris.

In the area of the theory, the publications: Toward a Scientific Architecture at MIT Press, 1975. Meina Fibel in 1982 and Pro Domo ACTAR D, 2006. These and other publications reported a proliferation of theoretical and supported his effort to make room for thinking about a better life in cities.

For more information http://ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=763&menuId=44

Nancy Guzman

If you�re spending a romantic autumn in apartments in Budapest walking through its beautiful streets and enjoying the amazing architecture, you cannot miss the Museum Ludwig and this second to none exhibition.

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Translated by: Hans
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With the 20th Anniversary of the first permanent exhibition, the Ludwig Museum presents until the 23rd of October �Site Inspection – The Museum on the Museum�. The exhibition focuses on the present discussion on the museum and its meaning on art, the artists and the public.

This exhibition is commissioned by Katalin Székely and, together with the museum�s curatorial team, she looks to expose the great changes that the museum space has gone through down the years and the critique that part of the artists have made in all this art process in the 20th and 21st century.

This ambivalent relationship of the artist with the institution has been regular and permanent in the world of art. A contradictory relationship where the artist requires: it, but at the same time directs his most intense critiques to the social representation space that museums are today: a space of power, a fundamental step in the market and a status mark and work value.

The exhibition puts special emphasis on the avant-gardist call of the 70s, both in the local and international space. This special outlook to avant-gardism is because in some shape or form, its institutional review can be considered a precursor of contemporary thinking spaces on the museum.

But we can�t forget previous processes on this critique, like the ones lived by the artists of the so-called avant-garde. Such is the case of Marcel Duchamp, who was one of the first to pose the paradoxes of work and its context, the relation between the artist and the museum and the one between the artist and the spectator.

For the conceptual artists of the 60s and 70s, this becomes crucial. The work loses or gains meaning according to its context and, for this reason, the museums transform into immobile and rigid spaces where the shapes and established spaces for each exhibition become disconnected from its process and from the relation with the spectator. For the avant-garde, the museum is part of the social gearing and, in the same way, ideology, representation of the shapes of social relation and the market in which they�re inserted. For that, its critique and investigation is directed to the social space as a whole.

This interesting and complex situation is well reflected in a series of films and videos that are presented in the film space in the exhibition, with works by artists such as Costa Gavras, Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock and Aleksandr Sokurov among others.

The artists that begun the institutional critic through their work or in their investigation projects during the 60s and 70s, they consciously made works that weren�t marketable and salable, many times, with the idea of carrying out a short or invaluable project for the logic of the market.

That way we can appreciate in this exhibition works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Andrea Fraser, Halász Károly, NETRAF, Dalibor Martines, Alan Sekula, Hans Haacke or Azorro Group among others.

For more information: http://ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=782&menuId=43

Nancy Guzman

If your destination option this summer has been to walk along the shores of the Danube and having a relaxing time in apartments in Budapest you can�t not visit the impressive Ludwig Museum and walk through this exhibition that gathers great 20th century contemporary artists.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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The Ludwig Museum in Budapest offers another interesting example with the aim of promoting contemporary artistic movements from Eastern Europe. From September 14th until January 15, of 2012 you can visit the exhibition dedicated to Photorealism movement “East of Eden: Versions of Reality”.



Photorealism, which in Eastern Europe has acquired certain peculiarities, was an art movement born in the United States between the late �60s and early �70s. It was a type of painting that used photography as a starting point for creating highly realistic paintings, which creates a disorientation in the viewer when trying to understand the techniques used by the artist.

This movement evolved from Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism,and was heavily criticized at the time of its maximum expansion for the use of photography, but visual artists have used various instruments to support their work since the fifteenth century. Today, these criticisms would be unacceptable, as many contemporary artists do not produce their works, but they are commissioned, or also in other cases, create projects that involve a group of experts that add complexity and expertise to parts of the art piece  (whether they are scientific, professionals or ordinary people).

But the point is that the emergence of the photographic technique was a turning point for painting and was a very interesting development of this language: the inevitable impression of reality in film, photography was established as a representation tool of reality par excellence. The light was printed exactly as pictured in the environment, recreating it in a extremely faithful way. Paintings then, are free of obligations, for it  is endemic and could move farther and farther toward abstraction.

In Eastern Europe, the Photorealism art movement has been as strong as in the U.S. in the �60s and �70s, although the realistic representation was completely different because of the traditions and the specific conditions of these countries, in addition to trying to satisfy political demands.

One of the most interesting artists presented in this important group show certainly is Gérard Gasiorowski, an artist born in 1930 in Paris and who died in 1986. His greatest success was his first hyper-realistic paintings (in the exhibit the famous “L�Approche” from 1965 can be seen), but the next phase of his artistic development, which is released as a “suicide pictorial” where he is  trying to wipe off  the paint by heavily criticizing  Western traditio and the art market (“Albertine”, series from 1971).

You can find more information on the link

http://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=762&menuId=44

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If you wish to visit “East of Eden: Versions of Reality” I recommend that you rent apartments in Budapest and enjoy a stay in this interesting city and visit its multiple cultural offerings.

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Translated by: Marc
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If you are traveling in Budapest, do not forget to visit the Ludwig Museum and its current exhibition “Unmistakable sentences”, which shows its collection from a renewed focus between arts and politics.

“Unmistakable Sentences”, is being exhibit at the Ludwig Museum until the 14^th of August. This exhibition shows works of art focused on the troubled, complex and often ambiguous relation between politics and aesthetics. The subject is vast, ranging from individual cases to abstract reflections about the fate of social utopias, the operation of cultural memory and the artist�s role in maintaining a political speech.

The relation between arts and politics in Hungary became too radical because of the extensive censorship exercised by the political power of the former regime, which defined a very direct existential tendency of contemporary production, as well as putting a strong influence on how they later saw this period and the works of the time were shown.

It is clear that production was not independent from the international stage; many works were born from the dialogue with the international contemporary world of arts, or in explicit opposition to it. An important example of this can be seen in World War II, when abstract art was used as a means of political propaganda in the West, and the same happened in Hungary during the Socialist Realism, period in which the artists from this movement were encouraged to take a dissenting position.

In “Unmistakable sentences,” this issue is addressed through a selection of important works from the collection of the museum, instead of presenting the most relevant work of the time, it focuses on recent acquisitions, intending to show to a wider audience. Among these works, many of which are shown for the first time, include the works of the Hungarian artists Tamás Kaszás, Ádám Kokesch, István Csákán and Csaba Nemes and also very well known works of international artists such as Harun Farocki, Simon Starling, Zbigniew Libera, Mladen Stilinović, Goran Trbuljak and Bálint Szombathy.

An interesting aspect of this exhibition, curated by Katalin Timar, is the decision of not to exhibit the works following historical standards or chronological principles, instead of that the exhibition is displayed in an original way that allows us to highlight the thematic and formal aspects of its works. Some of these connections may seem very simple and trivial, but are very useful to give the viewer a different starting point and unprecedented to find new meanings in known works. In fact, “Unmistakable sentences” wants to avoid showing the works in the same old way that often hides deep relations among works that are not directly linked. For this reason, it invites the viewer to actively participate in the show free of existing structures.

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Then, we recommend you to rent apartments in Budapest and get to know the local art from this amazing display.

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Translated by: Hans
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Until the 25^th of September, the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art will present László Moholy-Nagy’s work in the exhibition The Art of Light, composed by 130 paintings, black and white photographs, color photographs and graphical sketches made after 1922, when he devoted himself to teaching and formulating art theory by joining The Bauhaus School.

The exhibition is organized by the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in collaboration with the Circle of Fine Arts from Madrid, Martin-Groups-Bau from Berlín, Germeentemuseum Dem Haag and The Factory, in order to highlight his rich and varied work, specially the theoretical contribution to the modern art in his works focused in light.

Lázlo Moholy-Nagy was born in Bácsborsod, Hungary in 1895. Despite the fact of having studied Law, he opted for art, being considered one of the best photographers of the beginning of the 20th century. He was also a painter and an art theorist. He left a legacy of interesting intellectual work on contemporary art.

He was studying Law when the First World War begun, but the conflict led him to join the army. Later, he dropped out from the University to devote himself to painting with chalk and Indian ink. During the 1920’s, he moved to Berlin and devoted himself totally to experiment with photography and stills, getting impressive results. His stills of 1922 are considered nowadays works of art of incalculable value.

The following year he started leading metal workshops in The Bauhaus School. He also began to investigate the metal effects and stability; besides he introduced photography as a field of study at the Bauhaus.

His first theoretical work appeared in 1925 under the title Painting, Photography, Film, which became the 8th book of the series Bauhaus Books. Moholy-Nagy reflects his investigations about the use of light in photography in his book and he establishes a parallel between light and painting as instruments that can be defined by the color range in an art piece.

His passion for the phenomenon of light in the artistic creation led him to develop structures with movement and cavities through which light is filtrated, in order to see how they drew light and shadow silhouettes as the structures move.
This work involved him in kinetic sculpture, where movement, light and structure form an object that casts a variety of shapes as it moves.

László Moholy-Nagy immigrated to Chicago in 1937 expecting to reach the same success he had reached at the Bauhaus, but he failed and he could only found an art school that did not have a significant impact. He died from Leukemia in 1946 in Chicago.

For more information: http://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=768&menuId=44

Nancy Guzman

Seeing and knowing Moholy-Nagy works is a privilege that only a few people can have; so if you are staying at apartments in Budapest you can visit the Ludwig Museum and contemplate the work that this artist made at the beginning of the 20th century.

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Translated by: Hans
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Between the 22nd April – 3rd July, Budapest�s Ludvig Museum presents a retrospective of Mladen Stilinović – a collection of installations, collages, photographs and books by the neo-avantgarde artist from ex-Yugoslavia.

Mladen Stilinović was born in Zagreb in 1947, and in the 1980s was the director of Medija Proširenih Galerija (Media Gallery), and the co-founder of Galerija Podroom.

Between 1975 and 1980, Stilinović was part of the Six Authors Group, which was formed of conceptual artists interested in the idea of public art, and creating installations in urban areas. Stilinović made placards from basic materials, with provocative, politically critical slogans as well as photographs, newspaper cuttings, and simple phrases written in pen. His work, strongly influenced by the politics of his country, reflects the pain caused by the war which followed the fall of Socialism. He constructs his works based on a dramatic, dynamic narrative, playing with linguistic signs to express the mechanisms of power, and his own artistic fantasy of a world without creative barriers in which dreams and ideas can freely subvert order.

The work which stands out for the originality of its artistic and political theory consists of a piece of pale pink cloth, on which is written in black “An Artist Who Cannot Speak English is no Artist.” Stilinović emphasises and challenges the dominance of English, as the language of globalisation by scoring the “No” in red – an ironic play on words as a form of artistic protest.

Stilinović�s interest in poetry and cinema gives a sequential note to his works – each individual piece has a concept, but viewing them all as a whole gives its meaning. This is an effect repeated in his books, which take on cinematic pace as the pages go on.

In The Praise of Laziness Stilinović posits a profound criticism of the various political systems which governed the world using methods of exploitation and discrimination, maintaing that both socialism and capitalism deny the right of laziness, and condemn it as an evil which leads to vice. The capitalist system, Stilinović points out, only grants the luxury of laziness to a lucky few, whilst everyone else is exploited in order to produce capital wealth. He adds that socialism, which was conceptualised upon bringing an end to work, reversed to praise work as the only way of generating happiness. Finally, he asserts “laziness is the mother of perfection” and that without it, art wouldn�t exist.

For more information
http://www.ludwigmuseum.hu/site.php?inc=kiallitas&kiallitasId=760&menuId=44

Nancy Guzman

To discover the work of this interesting anarchist philosophist artist, you just need to go down to the Ludwig Museum if you are in Budapest. To experience spring in the city, rent apartments in Budapest

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Translated by: Poppy
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