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István Nádler

István Nádler

Orodzony/a 29 Listopad 1938, Visegrad
Lived in Budapest

István Nádler is a member of the legendary Iparterv and Budapesti Műhely groups and one of the most important representatives of the Hungarian neo-avant-garde movement and hard-edge painting. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. After he graduated, he was granted a scholarship which made it possible for him to live and exhibit abroad and participate in a number of artistic workshops. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a winner of numerous awards. He worked as a visiting professor at the University of California. In 2006, he was involved in the establishment of the Open Structures Art Society.

1958

From 1958 to 1963, István Nádler studied at the Magyar Képzőművészeti Főiskola/ Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, under the leadership of professor Gyula Hincz (1904-1986). From the beginning of his studies, he was involved in the activity of a free group of young Hungarian artists Zugloi Kör (Zuglo Circle, until 1968). Sándor Molnár (1936), Pál Deim (1932), and István Nádler (1938) were the leaders of the movement which declaratively followed the tradition of the French lyrical abstraction and the modernist icons such as Kandinsky (1866-1944), Klee (1879-1940), and Malevich (1879-1935). It was also inspired by the work of Jean Bazaine (1904-2001). The group formed in 1968 and they jointly exhibited in 1966 (Új törekvések 1966: Fiatal festők bemutatója./ New Aspirations 1966: Presentation of Young Artists, Malév KISZ-Klub, Ferihegy) and retrospectively in No. 5. Galéria in Budapest in 1993. After he graduated, Nádler accepted an offer from the Károlyi József Alapítvány/ Károly Foundation and took a study trip across Europe (1964). In the late 1960's, he became an active member of two most important Hungarian neo-avant-garde groups of the time: Budapesti műhely/ Budapest Workshop and the Iparterv movement. In the early 1960's, Nádler presented himself through markedly expressive informal paintings with typical calligraphic aspects (Gesztus/ Gesture, 1960). He followed the Hungarian constructivist tradition and inclined to the geometrization of the painting space. However, he was also interested in the influence of pure coloured areas. He chose individual shades intuitively and often put them in great contrasts which were, in the given combinations, strongly reminiscent of the colourfulness of Hungarian folklore. Thus, the traditional and the innovative, the local and the interregional met in the area of the canvas (Hatásos sárga/ Active Yellow, 1968).

1964

Received grant from the Joseph Károlyi Foundation

1968

Active yellow
Active yellow (painting)

Iparterv I (group exhibition, Budapest)

1969

Iparterv II. (group exhibition, Budapest)

1970

In 1970, he had a residential stay in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, at the expense of the Károly Foundation again. Two years later, he received a scholarship from the Folkwang Museum in Essen, which exhibited his contemporary works in 1974. Particularly in the early 1970's, Nádler's paintings were significantly reduced in terms of shapes and colours. In the previous period, he had also used polygonal lines and curves to divide the area of the painting. Now he only used straight lines. The shades of grey and beige dominated the colour tones. His style was comparable to minimalism. However, in his studies dealing with the relationship between illusion and reality he did not use sculptural modelling or three-dimensional space, but – as a painter – an areal construction through which he also reflected spatial objects. Such method allowed him to be on the edge of fiction

1971

Received grant from Museum Folkwang

1973

In 1973, with János Fajó (1937), Ilona Keserü (1933), Sándor Molnár (1936), and Imre Bak (1939), he established the Budapesti műhely (Budapest Workshop).

1974

Istvan Nadler. Diagonalen. Gouachen (solo exhibition, Essen)

1975

In 1978, Nádler took a study tour across Germany and Holland, and intensively participated in the operation of the Budapest Workshop. Spatial objects started to appear in his work. However, he preferred to use them for their materiality and their surface qualities (Cím nélkül/ Untitled, 1977). At the same time, they played the role of iconographic elements


1978

Nadler Istvan festdmavosz kiallitasa (solo exhibition, Budapest)

1980

The turn of the 1970's and 1980's witnessed a rather significant emphasis on authorship, the artist's self. Such inclination to expression was in accordance with the gradual refinement of Nádler's approach, his interest in the relationship between colour and line resulting in an almost lyrical harmony of the two components. The spontaneity and ease of the brushwork which was demonstrated in the renewed reflection of calligraphic motifs was, in his case, purposefully connected with the purism and minimalism of means. Music, background music, and themes played an important role in such development: Nádler's drawings in particular, were inspired by the compositions of Steve Reich (1936), László Vidovszky (1944), Péter Eötvöse (1944), and László Sáry (1940). The motif of temporality first appeared in his work

1981

Nadler Istvan kiallitasa (solo exhibition, Székesfehérvár)
Nadler Istvan kiallitasa (solo exhibition, Budapest)


1985

In the second half of the 1980's, István Nádler returned to colour. He used it in consideration of expression and subjectivity, which was more strongly emphasized by postmodernism, and also of the newly proclaimed eclecticism. Nádler created his own sign structure, painted symbols, by the use of which he transcribed quotations from the history of art
Nadler Istvan gyajtemenyes kiallItasa (solo exhibition, Budapest)
4th Biennial of European Graphic Arts Baden-Baden (group exhibition, Baden-Baden)


1989

In front (painting)

Nadler Istvan kiallitasa (solo exhibition, Pécs)


1992

Received grant from Hungarian Academy in Rome
Nadler Istvan kiallitasa (solo exhibition, Budapest)

1993

Received grant from The Villa Romana Prize
Roma — Nádler Istvan kiallftasa (solo exhibition, Budapest)


1995

In the second half of the 1990's, István Nádler resumed his travels. In 1995, he visited Rome and Florence, and Lisbon a year later. His stay in a different geographic zone with different light conditions resulted in the enrichment of his more geometrized canvases in terms of colours and shapes (Firenze/ Florence, 1995

1998

Istvan Nádler (solo exhibition, Kaunas)

1999

Nádler Istvan kiallitasa (solo exhibition, Szombathely )
Istvan Nádler (solo exhibition, Turku)

2000

After he won the Munkácsy Prize (1986), Nádler was awarded the highest state award, the Kossuth Prize, in 2001. Four years later, he was elected a member of the Széchenyi Irodalmi és Művészeti Akadémia/ Szechenyi Academy of Literature and Arts. He spent the year 2003 in Switzerland on a scholarship and then he lived in Berlin in 2004. He was involved in the establishment of the Open Structures Art Society (2006). After 2009, Nádler's gestures became more relaxed. The impressiveness of his canvases resulted from the effective combination of black and bright colours. Nádler also used metallic shades, gold, silver, and copper in combination with delicate pastel shades. In 2011, his contemporary works (Feketebács series) were exhibited in the Vartók gallery in Budapest.
Nádler Istvan kiallitasa (solo exhibition, Budapest)
Istvan Nádler (solo exhibition, Saint-Tropez)
Art in Central Europe 1949–1999 (group exhibition, Barcelona)


2002

[István Nádler] (solo exhibition, Budapest)


2004

Hommage a Ligeti György 80 (solo exhibition, Budapest)
[István Nádler] (solo exhibition, Budapest)
[István Nádler] (solo exhibition, Budapest)


2006

Új képek (solo exhibition, Budapest)
Akadémiai székfoglaló kiállítás: Esterhazy-portrék (solo exhibition, Budapest)

2007

Nádler István (solo exhibition, Budapest)
Nádler István „Nem is a főld miatt, nem is az ég miatt" (solo exhibition, Budapest)
White & Black (group exhibition, Budapest)

2008

Nádler István. Új munkák (solo exhibition, Fellbach )


2011

Transparency – Looking Through (group exhibition, Budapest)
ORNAMENT – SERIALITY. Historical and contemporary art (group exhibition, Budapest)



2014

István Nádler (solo exhibition, Paris)
LUDWIG 25. The Contemporary Collection (group exhibition, Budapest)

2017

Crossing Borders (The Grüner Collection) (group exhibition, Bratislava)

Muzeum umění Olomouc 2011-2024