Abu Dhabi: A fantastic selection of contemporary artworks from the collection of the Central Bank of
Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Bank, MNB) is currently beeing presented at the Etihad Modern Art Gallery.
The opening ceremony was attended by H.H. Sheikh Rashed Bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, H.E. Ossama Naffa, Hungarian Ambassador to the UAE.
András Mengyán(Fajó)
The art exhibition held from November 15 through December 4, 2022 in Abu Dhabi, which will be
examining the connection between writing and image in Hungarian contemporary painting, titled
Pictography: Calligraphies, Signs, Gestures, and Letter Images.
László Lakner
The exhibition features 12 prominent Hungarian artists who are well-known and recognized on the
Hungarian and international art scene. Many of them are leading figures of the Hungarian Neo Avant-
Garde (1960s and 70s),and those who are, associated with Simon Hantaï›s surrealist calligraphic
paintings, the pieces of which were the closure material of the Louvre Abu-Dhabi.
The artworks in the exhibition build on the abstract tendencies of modern art, the different writing
traditions of great cultures, and the need to express a sense of being. Their pictorial values link the
personal and the universal; new ways of creating spatiality; the regaining of spirituality on the basis of
archaic writing.
Dezső Korniss
Recognizing the importance of calligraphy to Islamic culture, which is not only a work of art but also a
source of inspiration: a tangible manifestation of the spiritual world, Anna Bagyó, advisor to the MNB
Arts and Culture and coordinator of the project, suggested writing as a potential theme for the
exhibition.
Katalin Keserü, art historian, professor emeritus, former curator of the collection and curator of the
exhibition (after two smaller Picto/graphy exhibitions in Delhi and Cairo) selected the material from the
collection of the Central Bank of Hungary.
Full list of artists: Aatoth Franyo (1954), Imre Bak (1939), Attila Csáji (1939), Krisztián Frey (1929-1997),
Tamás Hencze (1938-2018), Ilona Keserü Ilona (1933), Tamás Konok (1930-2020), Dezső Korniss (1908-
1984), László Lakner (1936), Kamill Major (1948), András Mengyán (1945), István Nádler (1938)
Animated films
The theme of the exhibition is extended by a selection of award-winning Hungarian animated films,
most of which have been screened at prestigious international festivals.
Imre Bak
Thanks to the collaboration of five renowned animation studios. the films selected by Anna Ida Orosz
and Márton Orosz will be presented in two sections (14 films for children and 32 films for adults).
The toolkit of animated films, with their tiny gestures, signs, stylized figures, and metaphors that
illuminate the relationship of associations between images, gives room to both philosophical and
narrative stories.
The 100-part «Hungarian Folk Tales» series, produced in Kecskemétfilm Studio ,was launched by Marcell
Jankovics. He previously worked with Gyula Macskássy, considered the father of Hungarian animation, and Oscar-winning director Ferenc Rófusz at the Pannónia Film Studio in Budapest, the most prominent
centre of the golden age of Central European animation in the 1970s and 1980s.
MNB Arts and Culture
MNB Arts and Culture maintains the contemporary art collection launched by the Central Bank of
Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Bank, MNB). From 2019 the bank continues to more intensively support the
contemporary Hungarian art than it had in previous years, through the conceptual expansion of its
independent collection and also the wider dissemination of its material. The collection's contemporary
material was digitised during the pandemic and made available to the public in virtual space
www.mnbarts.hu. In addition, MNB Arts and Culture actively cooperates with domestic museums
through the loan of artifacts, and aims to reach broad audiences by organizing temporary exhibitions,
accompanying events, museum education programs and dialogue tours. The collection has already been presented in the United Arab Emirates (March 2022), when it was exhibited in Dubai as an
accompanying event to the Art Dubai art fair, and in Seoul at the end of August, when it was shown at
the Frieze Seoul and KIAF art fairs.