Vass Tamas EMUK 2024Visiting period: 16th of February – 5th of April 2024

Curators: Ágota Portik Blénessy PhD and dr. Csaba Salat

Opening: The exhibition was opened on the 16th of February 2024, from 6 p.m., on the ground floor of the Transylvanian Art Centre, by Beáta Bordás, coordinator of the Transylvanian Art Centre and the curators, Ágota Portik Blénessy PhD and dr. Csaba Salat.

Loneliness, alienation, and the lack of belonging and truly deep human relationships are evident in Tamás Vass’s notes and drawings. From the second half of the 1970s onwards, dramatic compositions in a mature style and with many shapes dominated his oeuvre, alongside more lyrical cityscapes, nudes or illustrations. This exhibition at the Transylvanian Art Centre offers a wide selection of all these, but will also include autobiographically inspired prints by the artist and some of his etching plates.

We have set out to create an exhibition that will showcase Tamás Vass’s most distinctive works in the greatest depth and detail ever. To this end, we have borrowed some of the most important pieces of his oeuvre, many of them unknown to the public and even to the professionals, from 14 private individuals and a public collection.

The exhibition is accompanied, as usual, by a high-quality trilingual catalogue.

Tamás VASS (Târgu Mureș, 1942–1988)

Tamás Vass continued his studies at the High School of Fine Arts and Music in Târgu Mureș under the mentorship of painters István Barabás and Pál Nagy. The latter had a significant influence on Tamás Vass’ career. In the period 1963–1969, Vass studied at the graphics department of „Ion Andreescu” Institute of Fine Arts from Cluj under the guidance of László Feszt, who played a crucial role in his mastering of various graphic techniques and reproduction procedures at academic level.
The student’s talent was noticed already during his first college year, when he became the external graphic artist of Napsugár children’s magazine, collaborating subsequently in the same capacity also with periodicals like Új Élet, Igaz Szó and Vatra (1972-1987), as well as with publishing houses such as Kriterion, Dacia and Editura Tineretului (1982-1987). His outstanding drawing skills and distinctive artistic vision were highlighted in every county or national exhibition journal, his talent being attested too by the awards he won, however major success and recognition were slow to materialize. During the ever-darkening years of dictatorship, his representative works were excluded from competition by the jury and banned from group exhibitions. This fact – perceived by Vass as artistic failure –, hand in hand with his self-destructive lifestyle led to the gradual deterioration of his health. His untimely death was caused by an internal hemorrhage following a banal fall in his studio on 28 March 1988. But even so, his oeuvre, created in just two decades – prior to his premature death at the age of 45 – exhibits such remarkable richness and variety, that makes it truly unique in the context of Transylvanian visual art.

Solo exhibitions:
1978: Foyer of the National Theater, Târgu Mureș • 1979, 1981: Editorial room of Vatra literary magazine, Târgu Mureș • 1987: Exhibition Hall of Visual Artists’ Association, Târgu Mureș; Foyer of the Hungarian State Theater, Cluj-Napoca

Posthumous exhibitions:
1988: Exhibition Hall of Visual Artists’ Association, Sfântu Gheorghe • 1993: Exhibition Hall of Visual Artists’ Association, Târgu Mureș (with Izolda Macskássy) • 2004: Memorial exhibition organized by the Zsuzsanna Lórántffy Association, Exhibition Hall of Visual Artists’ Association, Târgu Mureș • 2009: Bocskai Hall, Târgu Mureș

Organizers: Town Hall of Sfântu Gheorghe, Transylvanian Art Centre Association
Sponsors: Hungarian Government – State Secretary for National Policy, Bethlen Gábor Fund, S.C. Medisal S.R.L.

Transylvanian Art Centre

Str. Oltului nr. 2., Sfântu Gheorghe
Jud. Covasna, România

+40 736 350 376
emuksepsi@gmail.com

Shedule:

From Tuesday to Friday: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

bga logo 1
bga logo 1
bga logo 1

© 2020 – Transylvanian Art Centre

Website Design and Maintenance: Digital Studio