Margit SOÓ ZÖLD graphic artist, painter, illustrator
Kolozsvár, July 9, 1931

From 1950 to 1956 she studied painting at the “Ion Andreescu” Faculty of Fine Arts in Kolozsvár. She was a student of Béla Abodi Nagy and Gábor Miklóssy. She lives in Kolozsvár. From 1957 until retirement she was the graphic editor of the children’s magazine “Napsugár”.She illustrated youth novels, numerous fairytale books, volumes of poetry and school textbooks. Her graphic series inspired by the Danube Delta illustrate Zsigmond Palocsay’s book, Nádiringó – Kákaláz. (Kolozsvár, 2002). Since 1962 she has been a member of the Romanian Artists’ Union and a founding member of the Miklós Barabás Guild, re-established in 1994.

In her artistic work, she aims for robustness and strenght of character and approaches the unique graphic drawing from the perspective of painting. She experiments throughout her career with various elements and stylistic directions, with different materials. In parallel with her expressive works constructed from large buoyant spots, she also creates drawings in fine lines, saturated with surrealist-symbolist lyricism. Her themes are as obvious as possible. They are the “personalities” of wildlife: trees, roots, flowers, birds and water; of the heavenly phenomena: clouds, stones; and the complicated and complex events of human life, often presented dramatically but harmoniously organized in terms of visual order. Her landscape interpretations push the boundary of abstraction.

Prizes:
2008: the Hungarian Cultural Society of Transylvania’ s (EMKE) Szolnay Sándor Prize; 2012: Munkácsy Prize 2012: Hungarian Golden Cross for Merit.

Solo shows (selection)
1958, 1968, 1972, 1977: The Small Gallery, Kolozsvár; 1971: Town Culture House, Szatmárnémeti; 1971: Culture House, Székelyudvarhely; 1972: Petőfi-House, Bucharest; 1994, 2016: Fine Art Museum, Kolozsvár; 1995: Student’s House, Kolozsvár; 1997: Roman Catholic Women’s Association Headquarters, Kolozsvár; 1997: The Hungarian Cultural Society of Transylvania’ s (EMKE)-House, Szilágysomlyó; 1999: Reményik Sándor Gallery, Kolozsvár; 2002: Gy. Szabó Béla Gallery, Kolozsvár; 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012: Barabás Miklós Gallery, Kolozsvár; 2011: Gallery IX, Budapest; 2017: Vigadó Gallery, Kézdivásárhely; 2019: Unitarian Church, Downtown Eparchy, Kolozsvár

Group shows (selection)
1956-2019: County Salon, Kolozsvár; 1956, 1960, 1967, 1970, 1980: Graphics Saloon, Bucharest; 1980: National Engraving Saloon, Galați; 1994, 1997: Kolozsvár’s artist exhibition , Hungarian House, Stockholm (S); 2000: Gábor Miklóssy and his students, Vigadó Gallery, Budapest; 2002: Half-time- Hungarian Art in Romania 1965-1975, Ernst Museum, Budapest; 2002: Instrumentarium, Reményik Sándor Gallery, Kolozsvár; 2007: Kolozsvár’s artist exhibition, Senso Gallery, Bucharest; 2010: Art teachers’ exhibition, Apáczai Gallery, Kolozsvár; 2011: Selection of Kolozsvár’s Graphic Art from the 1960-1980 period, Quadro Gallery, Kolozsvár; 2012: The literary world of writer Tibor Bálint – from an artist’s point of view, Unitarian Church, Downtown Eparchy, Kolozsvár; 2014: Half-time #2 – Hungarian art from Transylvania from 1965-1975 period, Transylvanian Art Centre, Sepsiszentgyörgy; 2015: Destiny and Symbol, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest; 2018: Vlahuță 63. – The studios of Kolozsvár’s Artists, Fine Art Museum, Kolozsvár; 2018: Illustratour, Fine Art Museum, Kolozsvár; 2019: Pastels Magic- Chamber exhibition of the Barabás Miklós Guild’s members , Barabás Miklós Guild Headquarters, Kolozsvár

References:
SOÓ Zöld Margit (album, private edition, 2004); NÉMETH Júlia – Soó Zöld Margit természetvallása („Művelődés” magazine, Kolozsvár, august 2016); DEMÉNY Péter: Soó Zöld Margit, 2016. (catalogue).