Let there be an exhibition of graphic art! A seemingly unambiguous and simple idea. But as soon as we take a step forward – or, indeed, in any direction – we feel immediately unsettled. Where does the genre of graphic art begin and end – if it ends anywhere, at all? In our world of digital imaging and manipulation software and of computer games available to everyone, in the ubiquity of artificial intelligence enabling anyone to generate images, what do we think of when hearing this expression?

Graphic printmaking has been present in Europe for more than half a millennium. In symbiosis and interaction with printing and its technological developments, it has formed its own constantly expanding formal language throughout the centuries. The Common Multiple exhibition endeavours to present contemporary visitors with a scale of techniques and ideas applied in the genre as broad in a temporal and spatial sense as it is comprehensive in terms of creative attitudes.

The bulk of the exhibition is drawn from three major collections: the Prints and Drawings Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, the Collection of the Cracow International Print Triennial, and the Fine Arts Collection of the Herman Ottó Museum and its affiliate, the Contemporary Collection of the Miskolc Gallery. The selection builds on the entire European tradition, while the modern and contemporary artworks focus primarily on the – Polish, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian – representatives of graphic art in direct contact with Hungarian creators, presenting such illustrious names as Francisco de Goya, Joseph Beuys, Dóra Maurer, Ilona Keserü, Béla Kondor, Stefan Kaczmarek, and Zbigniew Lutomski.

Aided by our selection, one may follow the evolution of the genre from the first, relatively small-scale, cabinet-type works to large-scale prints and installations. The viewers may observe how artists have moved from graphic work relying on printing blocks and serial thinking, prevalent until the most recent times, to abandoning the physical blocks and to the concept of serially produced, yet unique artworks.

Curator: Ábel Kónya