Dóra Maurer

From Monoskop
Revision as of 12:39, 9 June 2008 by Dusan (talk | contribs) (New page: Born 1937 in Budapest. Graphic Artist, Painter. 1956-1961: College of Fine Arts, Budapest, master: Gyula Hincz. 1967: Scholarship in Vienna; 1970: Graphics Award in Vienna; 1st Place Award...)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Born 1937 in Budapest. Graphic Artist, Painter. 1956-1961: College of Fine Arts, Budapest, master: Gyula Hincz. 1967: Scholarship in Vienna; 1970: Graphics Award in Vienna; 1st Place Award for Small Graphics; Award of the Yorkshire Art Association; 1972: Award of the 1st Norwegian International Graphics Biennial; 1976: 3rd place Award at the 6th International Graphics Biennial of Krakow; 1987-1989: governmental scholarship of the Austrian Cultural Ministry; 1988: scholarship holder of the Eötvös Foundation. 1995: Munkácsy Award; 1997: MAOE Creator’s Award; 2003: Kossuth Award. Since 1967 she has been living in both Budapest and Vienna. Between 1975 and 1977 she lead the Kreativitás – Vizualitás szakkör /Creative and Visual Study Circle/ together with Miklós Erdély (Kreativitási Gyakorlatok /Creativity Practices/). Between 1981 and 1983 she lead a photography and motion picture workshop of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest » Indigó Csoport; Between 1987 and 1991 she held audio-visual courses, as a guest lecturer, at the College of Applied Arts in Budapest. Since 1990 she has been a lecturer at Inter-discipline Faculty of the College of Fine Arts in Budapest. Her career began at the beginning of the 1960’s with bronze etchings, rich with sensitive, organic, and grotesque forms. (e.g.: Melegház /Green House/, 1963; Holtak háza /House of the Dead/, Pompei sorozat /Series of Pompeii/, 1964). Geometrical weavings and compositional webs, filled with bimorph elements were typical of her works, which at times had a depiction-like character, while in others cases were associative. Later on she prepared indefinable forms with methods of surface treatment. The process was evidently about moving towards the abstract, as is the case with his work entitled Fiore, prepared around 1963 and 1964, where he produced a strongly rustic wave-like surface. The period of her “psycho-realistic” bronze etchings ended around the middle of the 1960’s and her array of tools widened to a great degree. Elements such as collages, applications (e.g.: hairs), crumples, and layers which concealed the drawings below appeared in her works, which had been prepared up till then with primarily traditional techniques (e.g.: PB 0, Hegy és Ember /Mountain and Man/, 1969). Covering, concealing, the motif of concealment, which played an important role in her later works, also appeared around this period. She began preparing conceptual works during the end of the 1960’s when her array of tools widened with the usage of photography and personal actions. Such a work is the Nagyon magasról leejtett lemez /Record dropped from a very large height/ (photo, photogravure, 1970), where the act of dropping is depicted on photograph, together with the image of the deformed record. This type of personal presence may be noticed in a number of Maurer’s works (e.g.: Utcakő akció /Street Stone Action/ 1971). Maurer’s attention was drawn to serial works based on mathematics, natural actions and other serial works. She produced works with a large variety of materials such as sticks, different kinds of packages wrapped in gauze, branches, spikes, reeds, and the ranking of these according to size (Mennyiségtábla /Quantity Table/, straw and paper, 1972; Mennyiségtáblák 3. /Quantity Tables 3./, diverse materials on wood, 1972). Later she prepared the prescind and abstract relief versions of this same mathematical system with graphic and paint techniques. Following the production of these works she went on to produce her magical squares (Mennyiségtábla 6. /Quantity Tables 6./, wood-fiber plates, wooden boards, synthetic paint, 1972). The other larger group of the works of Mauer is the one related to placement of marks and production of signs. A quite diverse number of genres may be listed in this category: firstly the so-called ‘pedotype’, the first piece of which was the V. május 1-i felvonulása mesterséges talajon /The may 1st March of V. on Artificial Ground/ (1979), where one third of the ‘walking space’ was composed of crumpled paper rectangles, covered with paint, while the rest was white paper, on which the ‘private-marcher’ walked, leaving behind his or her footprints within a one and a half meter wide circle. The pedotype produced at the Helikon Gallery in 1976 was an extension of this very same idea. The idea of the placing of marks, and production of signs as well as the contrast of documentation and contradictory movements in opposite directions are characteristic of her serial works incorporating the usage of texts (Inkább madár lennék 1–4 /I’d Rather be a Bird 1–4/, 1971, Szónyomok, Akkumuláció 1–2 /Word Prints, Accumulation 1-2/, 1973). The third phase of her » process art activities was the group of works incorporated in her series of phase-photographs, based on the research of minimal movements, where the systemizing structure of the quantity tables is connected with the idea of mark-making (Revezibilis és felcserélhető mozgások /Reversible and exchangeable movements/, 1972/). The planned recording of the minimal movements was done with the new instrument of film. Shifting, or the change of position, as a central notion and idea has constantly been present in the works of Maurer. She examines the manner in which the movements system of two or more objects, interacting in one another influence each other’s movements, being layered onto one another (Displacement-sorozat /Displacement series/, 1972–1983; Relattív lengések /Relative sways/). She began her series of works entitled Kvázi-képek /Quasi-images/ during the middle of the 1970’s, the creational idea of which remained present, from then on constantly, in her works. She created these works through the random choosing of a detail of a geometrical screen-plate system, its enlargement and emphasis, and placement into a new plane, and later a three dimensional space (Széria ábra két Kvázi-képpel /Serial illustration with two Quasi-images/, 1976; Kvázi-kép véletlen adatok szerint /Quasi-Image based on random figures/, 1977). She also prepared her Eltolódások /Shifts/, and series of images entitled 4-ből öt típusú /Five types out of 4/ during the second half of the 1970’s. Within the first series /Eltolódások/ she split up squares diagonally, then moved the produced parallelograms away from one another. A number of quite interesting object groups were produced: graphics (Egy négyzet széttolása /The pushing apart of a square/, paper, 1974); object (Egy négyzet széttolása /The pushing apart of a square/, wooden object, 1974; Eltolhatás /Push-effect/ photograph on wooden plate, radio, 1976). The systemizing method of the 4-ből öt típusú /Five types out of 4/ works is the splitting up of four objects into five segments, with omissions and colors, such as five segment of a carrot (4-ből 5 /5 out of 4/, object, 1976; 4-ből öt szériák /Five out of 4 series/, acryl on wooden plates, 1979; 5-ből 6 /6 out of 5/, acryl on wooden plates, 1979). Another section of the work of Maurer, prepared during the 1970’s, alongside experimental films, is the idea of elrejtett strukúrák /hidden structures/, a frottage series, which was produced by the artist placing a separate pre-folded paper under the sheet of paper, thus the produced structure remained hidden, and the different geometrical units became the prints of no longer existent forms (Rejtett strukúrák 1–3., frottage, 1977–1979). All these experimentations lead to her works entitled Zsilipek /Floodgates/, consisting of structure analyses with light liquid and dust, during the beginning of the 1980’s. Maurer reached back to an idea found in a work of hers produced in 1972, entitled Szél jelzésben /Wind in Markings/ (prepared with coal shred on wooden plates), and began once again to examine the movement of markings left behind by different materials (Zsilipek /Floodgates/, photograph, chalk shred on paper, 1980). Another significant development in Maurer’s work during the course of the 1980’s was the coloring of the Quasi-images, and their placement into spaces. She differentiated the planes from one another and enlarged them through the usage of colors, thus producing quantities and formed canvases (Kvázi-kép No.86 /Quasi-image no. 86/, 1983). The system of the Quasi-images, which was produced based on a system of rules, which was able to signal quantitative changes (movements), and yielded to a large possibility for variation, and developed prior to the production process, was combined, with allegorical highlighting with the hierarchy of cold and warm colors. The climax of the program came in 1982 and 1983, when Dieter Bogner commissioned her with the painting of the tower room of the Castle of Buchberg. Maurer projected the design of her work entitled Térfestés tervek /Spatial Painting Plans/ (aquarelle on paper, 1980–1982) prepared in two dimensions onto the walls of the 14 sq meter room, and painted the illusion-like space. She documented the steps of the painting process on a series of photographs as well as on film. (Térfestés /Spatial Painting/, 58 mm, color, 1982–1983; Térfestés. Buchbergi projekt /Spatial Painting, Buchberg project/, BBS, video, black and white, 16 minutes, 1983). She continued this program at the turning point of the 1980’s and 1990’s, the colors used in her quasi-images continually changed due to the different light and lighting circumstances, and she painted this phenomena over and over again. These works constitute her Relatív Kvaziképek (Relative Quasi-Images) series. The spatial possibilities grew as well, her formed canvases “left the walls” (Ledőlt Quasi-kép alapformával, /Fallen Quasi-image with base-form/ wooden panel, acryl, 1986–91; Quod libet No. 2., wooden plate, acryl, 1991). In other cases curved forms from outside the picture frame entered her array of tools (e.g.: Vegyes téri viszonyok IV. No. 9., /Mixed spatial relations IV. No.9./ photograph, gouache, carton, 1993–96). During the second half of the 1990’s the compositional system, consisting up till then of eight base colors, was replaced by a less strict one (Hommage á Monet series). Later curved planes and the question of space became the focal point of her work (Görbült sík, homorú, /Curved plane, concave/ layered wooden panel, 1996; Görbült sík, szárnyas, /Curved plane, winged/ layered wooden panel, 1996). The essence of the Raszter közi Quasi-kép /Raster interval Quasi-image/ series is the realization of the continuous modulation of the relationships between light and color, which was the development of the Áthelyezés (Displacement) series, prepared two decades before (Raszterközi Quasi-kép /Raster interval Quasi-image/, Displacements 74, is the object of examination, layered wooden panel, acryl, 1997; Az RQD 74, augusztus 9-én 5.15-kor /The RQD 74 on August the 9th, at 5:15/, layered wooden panel, acryl, 1997). The works of Maurer within the genre of motion picture was closely connected to her fine arts career, and constituted an integral part thereof. She furthermore makes use, besides the visual possibilities of the media genre (image, color, movement), of other devices such as music, speech, noise, and texts in an extraordinarily creative manner. Her wide-range artistic activity, besides its conscious and intentional production does not however lack irony or humor either. The pedagogic, art and exhibition organizational activities of Maurer are also very significant.


http://www.artportal.hu/international/english/maurer_dora