The Pécs School

30 Years of the Faculty of Arts

The exhibition Symphony in Colour: The Pécs School attempts to survey a characteristic creative approach with local roots, which fits into broader art-historical contexts at the same time. It presents a group of artists whose work is formally intersecting, shares visual and conceptual affinities spanning several generations, and is connected to the city of Pécs as well as to the institutional and intellectual milieu of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pécs.

From the second half of the 20th century, Pécs grew into an influential centre of Hungarian and Central European contemporary art. Avant-garde traditions, a multidisciplinary approach to art, and an experimental attitude had been prominent in the city’s cultural fabric even during Socialism. This milieu not merely preserved but reinterpreted and passed on these tendencies, thus shaping a distinctive and identifiable artistic language.

This exhibition centres on the question of whether we can speak of the “Pécs School” as an artistic movement, and if so, what claims we can make about it. This interpretation does not evoke an institutional or stylistically homogeneous category but a network of connections that can be identified in retrospect: a dynamic system of artists, mentors, and students, as well as individual oeuvres running parallel. One of the most important intersections of this network is the Faculty of Arts, which, since its founding in 1996, has integrated programs in the visual arts, music, applied art, and media arts. Symphony in Colour thus refers to this harmony and pays tribute to the movement’s versatility – the ensemble of arts that interact with and influence one another. Most of the artists featuring in the exhibition have tighter connections to the School, while others have looser ties, illustrating the movement’s openness and the Faculty’s versatility.

Exhibiting artists:

ÁDÁM Zoltán · BENCSIK István · BÓBICS Diána · BULLÁS József · Colin FOSTER · ELŐD

Ágnes · ERNSZT András · GAÁL Tamás · GYENIS Tibor · HEGYI Csaba · HORVÁTH Csaba Árpád · KESERÜ Ilona · KISMÁNYOKY Károly · LANTOS Ferenc · LENGYEL András · LENGYEL Péter · LOSONCZY István · MARTYN Ferenc · MÉSZÁROS Gergely · NEMES Csaba · NYILAS Márta · PALATINUS Dóra · PALOTÁS József · PINCZEHELYI Sándor · RÉTFALVI Sándor · RIGÓ István · SOMODY Péter · TÓTH Zsuzsa · TOLVALY Ernő · VALKÓ László · VARGA Ferenc · Victor VASARELY

Curators

VÉKONY Délia, BULLÁS József

In partnership with

 University of Pécs Faculty of Music and Visual Arts