The Transylvanian Art Center cordially invites You to the opening of Imre Baász’s (1941 – 1991) exhibition on Friday, the 6th of August 2021, at 6 pm at the Transylvanian Art Center (Sfântu Gheorghe, Oltului street no. 2, 3rd floor)

The guests will be greeted by Fruzsina Vargha, vice mayor of Saint George Municipality and Beáta Bordás PhD, coordinator of the Transylvanian Art Center.
The exhibition will be opened by Mircia Dumitrescu, graphic artist and Lili Lőrincz, art historian.
The curators of the exhibition are Orsolya Baász and Péter Madaras.

The event is held with consideration to reduce the risk of the spreading of coronavirus pandemic, wearing masks properly and maintaining the required social distance during the event is obligatory.

The exhibition can be visited between the 7th of August and the 3rd of September 2021, from Tuesdays to Fridays from 10 to 17, and on Saturdays from 10 to 18.

Sponsors: Town Hall of Sfântu Gheorghe, Transylvanian Art Center Association, Bethlen Gábor Foundation

Imre Baász, actionist and graphic artist | Arad, 22 February 1941 – Sfântu Gheorghe, 16 July 1991

He was one of the most important Transylvanian artists of the second half of the 20th century (engraving, linocut, silkscreen, drawing in ink, charcoal and pastel). In addition to his work as a magazine and book illustrator, he created installations, action art, mail-art and was also involved in scenography. In 1972 he graduated from the „Ion Andreescu” Fine Arts College in Cluj Napoca, being a student of László Feszt. His diploma work was a series of engravings for Kalevala, which won second prize at the National Book Salon in Bucharest. In 1976, he moved to Sfântu Gheorghe, where he ran the town’s Fine Art Gallery until 1982. He enlivened the artistic life of the town, organising the first national youth avant-garde exhibition of the time, the Medium (1981), which became the international Medium 2 (1991), and the AnnArt action art festival at Lake St. Anne. Between 1990-91, he was a teacher at the Nicolae Grigorescu Fine Arts College in Bucharest and a set designer at the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj-Napoca. His multifarious art is based on the desire for freedom and the representation of the backlashes of dictatorship and political or national oppression. In his graphic language, based on the principle of collage, recurring motifs include safety pins, loudspeakers, birds, wire fences or grids, numbers and document files.

Solo Exhibitions

• 1970: Imre Baász and László Sipos, „Stúdió” Lobby, Târgu Mureș and Hungarian State Theatre Lobby, Cluj Napoca
• 1971: Imre Baász and László Sipos, Petőfi Sándor House of Culture Lobby, Bucharest
• 1972: Alfa Art Gallery, Arad
• 1974: Small gallery, Miercurea Ciuc; Alfa Art Gallery, Arad; Korunk Art Gallery, Cluj Napoca; Small Art Gallery, Oradea
• 1977: Imre Baász and István Petrovits, Municipal Culture House, Târgu Secuiesc
• 1978: The graphic work of Imre Baász and the sculptures of István Petrovits, Small Art Gallery, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1980: Imre Baász and Endre Adorjáni, Alfa Art Gallery, Arad
• 1983: Wounds of the earth, editorial office of the Brassói Lapok magazine, Brașov; Municipal Culture House, Odorheiu Secuiesc; Cristuriu Secuiesc
• 1984: Wounds of the earth, Új Élet Art Gallery, Târgu Mureș
• 1986: Exhibition of Imre Baász graphic artist, Gyöngyi Bot Pásztor textile artist and Lívia Cernensky sculptor, Arta Art Gallery, Arad
• 1988: Turku, Poli (FIN)
• 1988: Diagnosis, Etage Art Gallery, Stockholm (S)
• 1991: Baász 50, the premises of the Covasna County Inspectorate of Culture, Sfântu Gheorghe

Action and performance art works

• 1981: Burial of the suitcase, „Bíróné pusztája”, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1981: The birth of a myth, the rooftop of Block 105, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1981: Paper cones, Rainbow, „Vizeshalmok”, Târgu Mureș
• 1983: The scene, „Bíróné pusztája”, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1986: We’re gonna be in trouble, between the chimneys of the studio in Block 105, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1986: Bird, New Art Gallery, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1986: Fragile, Brook, Muntele Cucului (Cuckoo Mountain)
• 1988: Thank you ... Youare free, Etage Art Gallery, Stockholm (S)
• 1990: If you don’t give water, you don’t get water, if you don’t give bread, you don’t get bread, if you don’t give life, you don’t get life, with Jolán Miklós, AnnArt I. Action Art Festival, Lake St. Anne.

Group Exhibitions (Selection)

• 1970: County Biennale of Fine Arts, Arad
• 1971: Exhibition of Aradian Artists, Munkácsy Mihály Museum, Békéscsaba (H)
• 1973: National Engraving Salon, Art Museum, Cluj Napoca; Exhibition of the Hajdúság Artists’ Colony, Museum of Hajdúság, Hajdúböszörmény (H)
• 1974: Republican Salon of Drawing and Engraving, Dalles Hall, Bucharest
• 1976: Ex libris exhibition, Fine Art Gallery, Arad; Ex libris exhibition, House of Arts, Bucharest; Ex libris exhibition, Korunk Art Gallery, Cluj Napoca; Spring exhibition, Fine Art Gallery, Arad; The annual exhibition of artists from Covasna County, Szekler National Museum, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1977: National Festival „Celebration of Romania”, Republican Exhibition of Fine Arts - Graphics Art Museum, Cluj Napoca; Independence and National Freedom, County Exhibition of Fine Arts within the National Festival „Celebration of Romania”, Covasna County Museum, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1977–1986: Summer exhibition in Covasna, Municipal Culture House, Covasna
• 1978: Ex libris exhibition: County Museum, Miercurea Ciuc and Town Museum, Odorheiu Secuiesc; XVII International Ex libris Congress, Lugano (CH)
• 1978: On the highways of socialism, Dalles Hall, Bucharest
• 1978: Exhibition of artists from Covasna County, Szekler National Museum, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1979: Fine art exhibition, Victoria Art Gallery, Brașov
• 1980: Spring exhibition of artists from Covasna County, New Art Gallery, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1981: National Festival „Celebration of Romania”, Exhibition of Fine Arts, Dalles Hall, Bucharest
• 1981: Médium I. (Young Romanian Artists Exhibition), Art Gallery of the Covasna County Museum, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1986: Work is the main source of human fulfilment Labour Union House of Culture, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1986: The bird and the world of peace New Art Gallery (Üvegcsűr/Glass barn), Sfântu Gheorghe
• 1987: Visual arpeggios for peace three-part exhibition cycle (The drawing, The colour and The form), New Art Gallery (Üvegcsűr/ Glass barn), Sfântu Gheorghe
  1990: The House, New Art Gallery (Üvegcsűr/Glass barn), Sfântu Gheorghe1990: Church Art Gallery, Arnhem (NL)
• 1991: Médium II., Contemporary Art Exhibition, County Museum Gallery and New Art Gallery (Üvegcsűr/Glass barn), Sfântu Gheorghe

Commemorative exhibitions

• 1994: Imre Baász, Budapest Art Gallery
• 1995: Baász-A retrospective, Csikász Art Gallery, Veszprém (H)
• 1996: Baász-A retrospective, Showroom of the National Theatre, Bucharest
• 1998: Baász- Commemorative exhibition, Lengyel-House, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 2006: András Mérey and Imre Baász: post-mortem exhibition, Szekler Museum of Ciuc, Miercurea Ciuc
• 2006: The ideological document of the 3 Baász, Stable Art Gallery, Arcuș
• 2007: Imre Baász and Pálma Baász Szigeti, The Upper Floor Rooms of the Deacon’s Home of the Fortified Church, Târgu Mureș
• 2008: The ideological document of the 3 Baász, with Pálma Baász Szigeti and Orsolya Baász, Cultural Palace, Târgu Mureș
• 2010: The ideological document of the 3 Baász, with Pálma Baász Szigeti and Orsolya Baász, Art Museum, Cluj Napoca
• 2010: The Knights of Sfântu Gheorghe (the book illustrations of Imre Baász and Sándor Plugor), Arcades House, Sfântu Gheorghe • 2011: Imre Baász, Stable Art Gallery, Arcuș
• 2011: The Grid Breaker, MAGMA Contemporary Art Space, Sfântu Gheorghe
• 2018: Imre Baász, Chamber exhibition, Bod Péter County Library, Sfântu Gheorghe

Book illustrations (Selection)

• 1972: Kalevala, Kriterion, Bucharest
• 1973: Alexandre Dumas: Fekete tulipán (The Black Tulip), Kriterion, Bucharest
• 1974: Tyihon Szjomuskin: Alitet eltűnik (Alitet goes to the hills), Kriterion, Bucharest
• 1975: Kalevala, Európa, Budapest
• 1975: Kalevala, Magyar Helikon, Budapest
• 1978: Gizella Hervay: Zuhanások (Fallouts), Kriterion, Bucharest
  1979: Borisz Pilnyak: Meztelen év (The Naked Year), Európa, Budapest.

Prizes and Scholarships

• 1972: National Book Salon (Bucharest), 2nd Prize
• 1973: Káplár Miklós- memorial medal (Hajdúböszörmény, H)
• 1978: XVII International Ex libris Congress, Lugano (CH), 2nd Prize
• 1981: National Festival „Celebration of Romania”, (Bucharest) 2nd Prize
• 1985: National Graphic Arts Award (Romanian Artists Union)
• 1988: Finnish state scholarship
• 1992: Freedom of the Arts Award (posthumous)

Bibliography

• József Gazda: Baász Imre alkotó racionalizmusa (Imre Baász’s creative rationalism). Korunk, 1986/9. 679–682
• Bálint Chikán: Baász. Szabad Tér Publishing, Budapest, 1994
• Attila Kopacz: Imre Baász (1941–1991): A rácstörő (The Grid Breaker). MAGMA, Sfântu Gheorghe, 2011
• Attila Kopacz (edited by): Baász Imre. ARTprinter Publishing, Sfântu Gheorghe, 2012
• Lili Lőrincz: „Erre megy az út ezután, nyomomban az újabb ösvény” – Baász Imre Kalevala-illusztrációi (This is where the road goes next, the new path follows me” – Kalevala illustrations by Imre Baász), ARTprinter Publishing, Sfântu Gheorghe, 2016.