Biography
Tibor Csernus is one of the most significant masters of 20th century Hungarian painting. He was born in Kondoros in 1927, his father was a master locksmith. Csernus initially attended a trade school, but he felt a great desire to draw, and in 1943 he started the graphic arts department at the Industrial Drawing School. In parallel with his studies, he worked as a lithographer's apprentice at the Posner printing house, where András Benkő taught him the elements of drawing. In 1944, he enrolled in the School of Applied Arts. He was taken prisoner of war in 1945.
After World War II, he continued his graphic arts course at the School of Applied Arts under Lóránt Sárkány, then transferred to the painting course at the College of Fine Arts, where his teacher was Bernáth Aurél. In 1952, for his painting work, in particular, Orlay Petrich Soma paints Petőfi received the Munkácsy Award for his work Hungarian Fine Arts Exhibition. The title of his diploma work in 1953: The 12 points are printed at the Landerer printing house. He made his first portrait in 1954 of the poet Ferenc Juhász, with whom he was a good friend. His landscape pictures were made in a social realist style until 1956.
From the middle of the 1950s, he is on his own individual wayfinding, he studied cubism and other 20th century's art movements. In 1957, he went to Paris, where he got to know French painting between the two world wars, automatist calligraphy (Georges Mathieu, Hantai Simon), and surrealism (Max Ernst, Tanguy). During the summer, he worked at the artist colony in Szigliget, André Derain influenced his landscape painting. His pictures created in 1958-1964 are characterized by a nature-mystical and surrealistic creative process. During this time, he creates several monotypes.
The surrealistic painting trend is associated with his name. The term became well-known after Géza Perneczky's study (1966), but it originated in 1964 in connection with György Korga's solo exhibition. Perneczky called the younger artists grouped around Tibor Csernus, Korga, László Lakner, Ákos Szabó, and László Gyémánt, Szürnaturalism. The names of Iván Masznyik, Sándor Altorjai and Ferenc Kóka were also mentioned in connection with the concept, whose paintings showed characteristics related to supernaturalism. Surnaturalism is constructed from naturalistically painted details, destroyed or distorted to varying degrees, creating surreal paintings in their overall effect. In their works, photo-realistic details alternated with surreal, amorphous parts. Csernus's "scratch" pictures painted in the early 60s can be considered as examples of the trend. The members of the Csernus circle primarily followed their chosen master in transcending naturalism. Through the mediation of Simon Hantaϊ, he discovered inspiring works in the paintings of Max Ernst. Surnaturalism flourished in the second half of the 1960s, and young artists who became sovereign creators later continued the journey in different directions (hyperrealism, pop art). They did not organize a joint exhibition, the relationship between them was stronger in theory than in practice. At the Studio's 1966 exhibition, it was possible to see their works together in one room. Csernus' activity as a book illustrator was also significant (Endre Fejes: Rozsdatemető; Zsigmond Remenyik: Por és hamu; Gongora: Selected poems).
He lived and worked in Paris from 1964. In the 1970s, he turned to hyperrealistic depictions, and did not give a title to his photographic studio details, housing estates, and still lifes. In the 1980s, he painted multi-figure, pseudo-academic nude compositions and biblical scenes and still lifes (with chickens, fish), animal pictures (horses, parrots, swans) in the style of Caravaggio. His most outstanding monumental expressive-realist series from the 1990s, The Whore's Road, was inspired by William Hogarth's series of engravings and the influence of the Italian visual artist Gaspare Traversi.
