György Galántai (born June 17, 1941) is a
Hungarian neo-
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
and
fluxus
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...
artist, organizer of the events of the Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár which run from 1970 to 1973 and founder of the
Artpool Art Research Center Budapest. During the
Communist Era of Hungary, he organized illegal, underground avant-garde exhibitions and therefore he was considered to be a "dangerous element" by the Party for spreading western propaganda, and was monitored by secret police, who opened the file "Painter" solely documenting his activity. From the late seventies he started an intense correspondence with fellow artists all over the world, joining into the network of
mail art
Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Scho ...
despite the
Iron Curtain limiting his access for information. In 1979 he created an archive for these correspondences and other documents which he collected on Hungarian neo-avantgarde movements and initiated
Artpool which became the largest archive of new mediums such as
fluxus
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...
,
visual poetry
Literary theorists have identified visual poetry as a development of concrete poetry but with the characteristics of intermedia in which non-representational language and visual elements predominate.
Differentiation from concrete poetry
As the l ...
,
artists' book
Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects.
Overview
Artists' books have employed a ...
,
mail art
Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Scho ...
,
artistamp
The term artistamp (a portmanteau of the words "artist" and "stamp") or artist's stamp refers to a postage stamp-like art form used to depict or commemorate any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of Cinderella stamps in that they ...
etc. in
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
.
Between 1970 and 1973, Galántai organized and ran the "Chapel Studio" of
avant-garde art
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical D ...
held all summer in the chapel in
Balatonboglár
Balatonboglár is a resort town situated on the south shore of Lake Balaton in Somogy County, Hungary. It is the official centre of the Balatonboglár wine region, and is often called the "town of grapes and wine."
Between 1979 and 1991 Balatonbo ...
.
[Júlia Klaniczay and Edit Sasvári (eds): Törvénytelen avantgárd: Galántai György balatonboglári kápolnaműterme 1970-1973 llegal Avant-garde: The Chapel Studio of György Galántai in Balatonboglár 1970-1973 Artpool - Balassi, 2003, 460 p.] In all, there were some 35 exhibitions, concerts, poetry recitals, theatrical performances, and film showings were held over these four years, featuring the best of Hungary's (and then considered politically undesirable) avant-garde artists, and guest artists from abroad.
In 1971, he started working on the problem of signs and their meanings.
External links
Life worksArtpool
References
1941 births
Living people
Hungarian sculptors
Modern artists
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