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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If Ibiza has its Café del Mar, Berlin boasts about its Tacheles cultural centre and Copenhagen attracts thousands of people to the Christania district, the city of Budapest holds one of the most alternative spaces in Europe. Write its name down: Cöxpôn RestArt Ambient. This place is much more than a pub or a restaurant. It´s not just a cultural centre or an exhibition centre; it´s almost like a museum, or so they say on its website: www.cokxponambient.hu

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You´re in the right place if you´re looking to rent Budapest accommodation apartments . Don´t forget to visit this cultural centre of reference.

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The Modern Hungarian paintings of Lajos Tihanyi reached its highest point at the beginnings of the early twentieth century, although he became deaf at the age of eleven years due to meningitis and barely had in the traditional sense a normal education .

Composed of bright colors, the works he did in Hungary, were mainly landscapes, nudes, portraits and still lifes, using visual lessons of Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso. After the Soviet Republic of 1919, he left the country and spent some time in Vienna and Berlin before settling in Paris. Contemporary writers, artists and politicians who he came to know during his emigration were subjected to a series of graphic works. Meanwhile, his paintings moved further away from the principles of realistic painting and his images show an enhancement in structure, representations and misrepresentations of his intense palette of expressionism.

Although in 1933, when he joined the group of abstract creation in Paris, he was far ahead in works done in this style, his untimely death in June 1938 prevented the full deployment of this period. Thanks to photographer friends, Brassaï ,André Kertész, and the painter Jacques de la Frégonniere, most of his works have survived and were returned to Hungary in 1970.

The last exhibition of his work was held in 1973 in the Hungarian National Gallery. This new exhibition has selected works from museums and private collections as well as foreign and Hungarian ones, promising a rediscovery of one of the best Hungarian painters.
Tihanyi was a painter and graphic artist who achieved international success as a Hungarian working abroad. He was part of the influential avant-garde group called The Eight, founded in 1909 in Budapest. After the fall of the Democratic Republic of Hungary in 1919, Tihanyi left the country. He connected with many writers and artists in Berlin such as the Hungarian Gyorgy Bölöni and later photographer George Brassai. In 1924 he moved to Paris where he stayed and became part of Hungarian art circles. His works are exhibited in the Hungarian National Gallery and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, among others.

Lajos Tihanyi was born in Budapest in 1885. He studied drawing at the School of Industrial Art and design, but Hungary did not have an academy of art. Márk Femés Vedres and Vilmos Beck

Tihanyi began working in Budapest, where Post-Impressionists helped introduce concepts and techniques of Cubism and Expressionism in art circles. At the age of 24 years was part of The Eight, The Eight was formed by painters Róbert Berény, Dezső Czigány, Béla Czóbel, Károly Kernstok, Ödön Marffy, Dezső Orbán and Bertalan Pór. The sculptors and Vilmos Femés Márk Vedres Beck were also associated with them.

He painted portraits of many of his friends, as Bölöni (1912), Jacques de la Fregonnière (1928). He became a world-renowned artist, with much of his best work in museums outside Hungary. Visit the official website of the exhibition in http://kogart.hu/kogart/en/nextexhibition_content.jsp?id=75

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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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As of the first of May, the Vasarely Museum in Budapest will open the  OSAS PLUS exhibit performed by founding artists of the Open Structure Art Society (OSAS). This year the exhibition is an interesting proposal where each artist is also an OSAS curator, therefore proposing a free thematic exhibit without restrictions as to subject or any order. The exhibition is organized around 10 artists and other Hungarian artists that do not belong to OSAS as well as international guest artists . The art historian Julia N. Mészáros and the collector and art critic Andras Szollosi-Nagy, participate as curators.

OSAS began doing these shows in 2006. Three years later there was a second version and with OSAS PLUS the third version is on, and with it a tradition in the area of ​​the Museum�s exhibits. Despite the distance between these exposures, these six years have successfully completed 14 other thematic exhibitions of contemporary art at the Vasarely Museum making it the headquarters of their exhibitions, where the topics range from graphic arts to conceptual art and even designing of ornamentation.

As part of the exhibition wanted to pay tribute to the sculptor Hetey Katalin, who died in 2010, an exhibition with his final drafts and sketches of completed works has been organized. As a special part of the exhibition it will also display the graphic album titled Piece Unique, an art piece by the members of OSAS, of which there are only fifteen copies available.

The ten artists on exhibition are: István Haász, Gáyor Tibor Konok Tamás, Dora Maurer, Mengyán András István Harasztÿ, Judith Nem, Vera Molnar, Janos and Istvan Nadler Megyik. They have selected their own work, some is recent and some is old and everyone invited a Hungarian or international artists to exhibit part of their work.

Tibor Gáyor is a Hungarian painter who orders visual elements to give strength and meaning to the content of his work. From the 60�s his works of geometric and abstract paintings give a set of tones that are consistent with his visual puns.

János Megyik: His work always walks on the edge of architecture, sculpture and painting. He uses simple materials to give three-dimensional volume to his work and plays with colors to confront the planes, always giving volume to his images.

Vera Molnar is a Hungarian painter who has described her work as a logic search of creation. Currently she working in computer-aided construction of simple geometric shapes, that is changing gradually as to see the evolution and transformation that occurs through successive amendments.

Judith Nem is a Hungarian artist representative of the geometric art of the 50�s and 60�s, she has also worked in the creative tendency of the “book as an object” as well as computer graphic art. She currently lives in Paris.

For more information: http://www.vasarely.hu/kiallitasok_en/index.php?main_menu[main_menu][item]=3&lang[lang]=en

Nancy Guzman

To change and look at life with more optimism in difficult times it is recommended to take a few days off, so take advantage of the arrival of spring and rent apartments in Budapest You will not regret it.

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Until the 19th of February of 2012, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts holds the exhibition �El Greco to Rippl-Rónai�, which gathers the collection of Marcell Jánoshalmi Nemes. With this exhibition they attempt to pay a tribute to the patronage of the Hungarian art collector who became a legend in the world of art in the beginning of the 20th century.

The exhibition was titled �El Greco to Rippl-Rónai� because it shows the broadness of the contained works in this important collection. For that they�ve selected 120 objects, among which we can find works by great Italian and Dutch masters, works of Hungarian artists, china, medieval sculptures and other objects of decorative art from different times, catalogues and documents belonging to Nemes.

Marcell Jánoshalmi Nemes was born in Jánoshalma, Hungary, in 1866. His becoming of one of the most important patrons and collectors in Hungary and Europe was full of speculations. This meant that his figure become one of the most controversial ones of his time, which made him into a legend, because he opted to finance young Hungarian artists and artists from other nationalities, buying their works so they could carry on their perfectionist studies.

During his life he donated various works of his collection, such as the valuable work by El Greco �Mary Magdalene in penitence� and another by Ádám Mányoki, �Ferenc Rákózi�, which is considered a work of heritage in Hungary of huge value, a gem of Hungarian arts, to the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts.

His generosity wasn�t limited to his country. Numerous institutions such as the Munich Museum, the Berlin Museum, the Louvre Museum and the Prado Museum also received donations. Also, various Hungarian institutions, such as the Applied Arts Museum, received donations, and he contributed in a generous way to the foundation of the Kecskemét Photography Gallery, to whom he gave 80 works of his private collection on Hungarian painting in 1911.

Based on this singularity of Nemes, the exhibition is made up by works of his collection belonging to various national and international museums, as well as parts of his collection that are found today in the hands of private collectors. With this, they try to enhance the wealth of the collection and remember his visionary view on art and its preservation for future generations.

In the exhibition we can find works by important 19th and 20th century Hungarian artists, among them works by József Rippl-Rónai, Mihály Munkácsy, Pál Szinyei Merse, Károly Ferenczy, János Vaszary, Béla Ultz and Károly Kernstok among others.

József Rippl-Rónai was born in Kaposvár, Hungary, in 1861. Despite his pharmacy studies, he moved to the Art Academy in Munich to study painting and then moved to Paris to study the same subject with Munkácsy. Among his greatest painting there�s �My Grandmother� and the portrait of the great Hungarian pianist Zdenka Ticharich.

For more information: http://www.szepmuveszeti.hu/web/guest/articleview?mi_layout_id=29.30&mi_article_id=964

Nancy Guzman

It�s always pleasant to spend a few deserved relaxing days in Budapest, a city full of romance, art, history and a culinary offer of the highest quality. For these and thousands more reasons, rent apartments in Budapest now and enjoy the beginning of 2012 so you can start the year with positive energy.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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The Hungarian National Museum has in its galleries the work of the 19th century Hungarian painter Károly Markó in the exhibition From Myth to image, which will be open to the public until October 2nd. The exhibition is commissioned by Hessky Orsolya, Bellák Gábor and Drago Zoltán and it�s a product of the cooperation of museums in Barcelona, Vienna, Bratislava, Copenhagen and Prague, as well as public and private collections that put forward to the disposal of the museum works of high value.

The exhibition enters the work of Markó in his mature phase, when he establishes his own style after his artistic experience in Italy and he comes close in a definitive way to European contemporary painting.

Károly Márko, known as “The Old Man”, was born in Levoce, currently Slovakia, in 1791. He studied in the Arts Academy in Vienna and in the Rome Academy, where he transformed into the most outstanding artist in landscape painting that was formed in that academy. His grandeur trespassed the borders of Europe, being considered by experts as the artifice of the Hungarian painting school and the artist of major influence and significance.

Following the fashion of the time, Markó spent large parts of his life in Italy, where a large amount of the European artists got together attracted by the art development there. Due to the valuation of his work, he was named a member of the Academy in Florence, Venice and Arezzo,. where he left a school that followed his composing, lighting and thematic lines.

He was also invited to give class in the San Carlos Academy in Mexico as a teacher of landscape due to his exquisite work of luminosity, color and composition. But despite the tempting offer, he decided to hand over the invitation to his disciple, Landesio, who transmitted the formation that he�d received by Markó in his painting classes.

Markó�s painting took scenes that put as a pretext a scene of mythology or religiousness to outline and fixate the attention to the landscape, which is represented in panoramic views dominated by warm lights and nature details.

The influence that Markó had among the painters of the time was huge. The handling of the light in his landscapes and the composition make of his work one of the most interesting ones of the 19th century, to the point that through Landesio he left his print among the painters that transported the Roman landscape to the Mexico Valley and its volcanos, like various heirs of this tradition did.

Visegrád is one of the most famous paintings by Markó because it captures in an incredible way the luminosity of the mountain landscape that is located in the sinuosity of the Danube, in Hungarian territory. This painting is considered a cultural icon in the region and it reproduces with authenticity the peculiar topography of the place.

For more information: http://www.mng.hu/en/exhibitions/marko_nyito_en

Nancy Guzman

If you don�t know the work by Károly Markó, I invite you to come to the Hungarian National Museum if you�re around the area and enjoying apartments in Budapest There you can see that landscapes that made this painter famous.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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The Hungarian National Museum exhibits until the 16th of October its collection of prints and drawings from the period of 1900-1925. The exhibition “Painting on paper” is curated by Eszter Földi and Ferenc Zsákivics, it contains more than eighty thousand books and documents that due to the fragility of the paper cannot be on permanent display.

However, these works will be shown during the next six years, with six-month renovation on each one to accompany the permanent exhibition of paintings and sculptures of the twentieth century.

Throughout the historical period covered by this sample, watercolors have a significant presence in the Hungarian art; at least, this is what can be seen in the works and sketches that compose this archive.

Watercolor is a technique that requires great skill and training to achieve proficiency with the paintbrush and the mixing of colors on paper. The works made with this technique are performed in a single session. The difference between watercolor and drawing is that the stain on watercolor replaces the stroke, so it requires much more training in the preparation of colors and sketches.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, the art nouveau entered into the art scene and many artists added to this current, which renews the design, drawing, painting and all forms of art. The artists of the city of Gödöllő were those who integrated watercolor sketches and illustrations in line of art nouveau as Mihály Rezso´s illustrations based on a story.

In 1910 watercolor begins to be less used by the Impressionists, despite this, many artists kept the use of techniques that allow the use of watercolor.
The avant-garde artist Gizella Dömötör has several remarkable works of this kind. Dömötör was born in Budapest in 1894 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in the same city. Married to the artist Hugo Mund, they both participated actively in the Hungarian avant-garde, by following French modernists and adding themselves to cubism and expressionism. In the 30´s, they immigrated to Argentina.

The interwar time was the most significant period for painting and engraving of the twentieth century in Hungary. The most precious works in terms of aesthetic and artistic value that the National Museum owns belong to this period, because the terrible economic situation of the time was linked with the decline in art sales, as well as the decline of art galleries and markets.

The Surrealists Béla Bán, Endre Bálintc, Lajos Vajda, Margit Anna and Imre Amos recorded the horrors of World War II in watercolors, gouache and ink. Today their works are in the archives of prints and drawings.

For more information http://www.mng.hu/en/exhibitions/grafika_akvarell_en

Nancy Guzman

This exhibition is a great alternative to learn the history and culture of Hungary and Europe through art, so if you�re in apartments in Budapest come to appreciate this wonderful collection of watercolors and prints.

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Translated by: Hans
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The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest will display until the 12^th of September an exhibition called The Eight, which includes works by the Group of Eight, whose works represent the best of the Hungarian art inspired by the French modernist currents from the last century. People will have the opportunity to appreciate newly discovered and restored works by some of the artists of this important group.

The story of the meeting of these eight artists dates back to 1909, when they met in the first avant-garde art exhibition in Budapest, in which the audience discovered this talented group of young artists who introduced Cubism and Expressionism, while breaking the classicism of the Hungarian painting.

The Group of Eight was formed by Róbert Berény, Béla Czóbel, Ödön Márffy, Dezső Orbán, Bertalan Pór, Dezső Czigány, Lajos Tihanyi and Károly Kernstok. They were inspired by Henri Matisse and Paul Cezane, considered the fathers of Fauvism, because of their chromatic exaltation based on the color theory that established the primary, secondary and complementary colors.

The impact caused by the Group of Eight in the Hungarian culture was crucial for the development of the modern arts and intellectual vanguard. In their three exhibitions, they gathered artists from various disciplines and intellectual trends among which were the composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, the poet Endre Ady and the philosopher György Lukács.

Róbert Berény was well known for his portrait of the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, which was painted in 1913. As well as all members of the Group of Eight, Berény performed several activities in music and literature that were never known. After the fall of the republic in 1919, he immigrated to Berlin, along with many other artists and writers from Hungary. In 1926 he returned to Hungary and won the Szinnyei award in 1936. During World War II, his workshop was destroyed and many of his works were lost forever.

Czóbel Béla was a member of the Group of Eight who was considered as a regarded member of the exclusive Ecole de Paris, a group of the greatest painters of the twentieth century.

Dezső Czigány of gypsy origin studied painting in Paris and dedicated himself to painting portraits and dead nature. His suicide after killing his family condemned his work to ostracism, and that is why it is hard to find his works and references.

Lajos Tihanyi was a painter, illustrator and autodidact lithographer, because he never was able to study due to his condition as deaf-muted person. He was Cubism, although he changed his current through the years.

All painters of the Group of Eight performed wonderful works and were enormously prolific. Many of their works were destroyed during the Second World War.

For more information http://www.szepmuveszeti.hu/web/guest/articleview?mi_layout_id=29.30&mi_article_id=877

Nancy Guzman

An interesting entertainment proposal for this summer. Rent apartments in Budapest and come to discover the paintings of the Group of Eight and its influence in the Hungarian art.

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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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