Wolf of Prokletije (1968)

György Kemény (1936 - )

Information

Size

84 x 55 cm

Material

gouache on cardboard

Price

14,000 USD

Signature

Signed bottom right: Kemény Gy.

About

György Kemény attended the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts between 1956-1961, where his teachers were Gyula Hincz and Sándor Ék. From 1971 he became involved in the exhibition activities of the Papp Group. At the turn of the 1970s and 80s he was a member of the Perspektíva group. In his work, fine art, graphic design and visual design run parallel and sometimes intertwine. His objects, installations, posters and visual design works are also characterised by a grotesque conceptual approach combined with an ironic tone. The expressive medium for unexpected juxtapositions of ideas is montage, in all genres, from drawing to video installation. His basic concept is that of astonishment and play, which are virtues that are particularly well exemplified in poster art. In the 1960s, he borrowed from the tools of pop art the strong contours of the loud drawing based on local colours, and with playful self-irony, evoking the trend of Western art, he smuggled the atmosphere of consumer society into Hungarian commercial advertising, and the atmosphere of Western pop art into the film poster. He treats the letter as an element of equal importance to the drawing and montage, and demonstrates a high degree of typographic mastery. He likes to create his own 'talking' letters, which sometimes become emblems. Interpress Magazine, which he has designed in turn with Tibor Helényi, has given him ample scope for experimentation and for using the up-to-date knowledge he has acquired through his constant active professional orientation. In 1989, he [with Sándor Pinczehelyi] was invited to take part in the international poster competition in France to mark the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights.

 

Wolf of Prokletije is a Yugoslavian film about an old Albanian who lives in the mountains on the border of Kosovo and Albania. A man of honour, he has to come to terms with the fact that his son befriended Italian fascists during World War II. For the 1968 film, Kemény designed a true pop art poster (see contour drawing, face as emblem, bright, large patches and fields of colour) with the typical typeface of a Wild West film.

Related Themes

Post-War Figurative Art

(1949-1989)

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