Early Life

Judit Reigl was born on May 1, 1923, in Kapuvár, Hungary. She studied painting at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest where she was a student of István Szőnyi. She recieved a scholarship from the Hungarian Academy of Rome and traveled to Italy from 1941 to 1946. In October 1948, she returned to Hungary, which had been overtaken by a Soviet-style authoritarian regime. Determined to leave and after seven failed attempts, Reigl successfully crossed the Iron Curtain in March 1950 and a few months later arrived to Paris.

After Settling in Paris

Her earliest Parisian works, indebted to the oneiric imagery of Surrealism, include photo-collages as well as paintings of monstrous figures and of vividly colored phantasmagorical scenes, as in They Have an Insatiable Thirst for Infinity (Ils ont soif insatiable de l'infini, 1950). From 1952, Reigl started to experiment with gestural paint application that expanded on the Surrealist practice of automatic writing. By painting and scraping the canvas, she produced abstract works that featured elongated, Möbius strip–like biomorphic forms in glowing and often highly saturated colors. She lived and worked in Marcoussis.

About her Series

In May 1954, fellow Hungarian painter Simon Hantaï took André Breton to Reigl's studio; Breton immediately offered her a solo exhibition, which she at first turned down, then accepted in November. The show took place at L'étoile scellée, then the gallery of the Parisian Surrealist group, and was composed of both Reigl's figurative and abstract works. After the exhibition, she dissolved her connections with Breton and adopted a purely abstract and vigorously physical approach to painting. By hurling compounds of industrial pigment and linseed oil on the canvas and then molding them with various metal devices into explosive marks, she used her body as an instrument of painting. In resulting series such as Outburst (Éclatement, 1955–58), Center of Dominance (Centre de dominance, 1958–59), and Mass Writing (Écriture en masse, 1959–65), the streaks of pigment appear on white grounds in different spatial and chromatic configurations that suggest force fields, shaped by the kinetic energy of the artist's body and the gravity of paint. In Guano (1958–65), Reigl recycled a group of abandoned canvases that once covered her studio floor by painting over them: the works use the waste material of the studio and, as opposed to the immediacy of her gestural works, record the passage of time through the accumulated layers of thickly textured paint. In 1963, Reigl left Paris and moved to Marcoussis, a village southwest from the capital. In February 1966, after noticing the emergence of an anthropomorphic figure in her work, she devoted a series of monumental paintings titled Man (Homme, 1966–72) to the representation of fragmented humans, mostly male torsos. In the series Unfolding (Déroulement, 1973–85), she resumed her interest in the spatial-temporal dimension of gesture. Created by the cadences of her moving body as well as by unorthodox paint applications that provoked bleeds through the weave of the canvas, the works in Unfolding feature horizontal rows of graphic signs that are visible on both sides of the paintings. In the late 1980s, she returned to the human figure and has continued her investigation of bodies and spaces ever since.

Notable Achievements

Reigl’s works could be juxtapositioned with such star artists of the New York School like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko or Clyfford Still.

Her paintings are part of such public collections as the Metropolitan Museum of New York, The MoMA – New York, The Guggenheim Museum of New York, The Tate Modern in London and The Centre Pompidou in Paris among many others.

She had been presented in many solo exhibitions in: France (Galerie Kléber, Paris, 1956; Galerie rencontres, Paris, 1972; Musée de peinture, Grenoble, 1980; Galerie de France, Paris, 1986, 2012; Galerie Le Minotaure - Galerie Alain Le Gaillard – Galerie Antoine Laurentin – Galerie Anne de Villepoix – Galerie Le Studiolo Galerie de France, 2017); Germany (Galerie Van de Loo, Munich, 1966); Austria (Wienerroither & Kohlbacher Fine Art, Vienna, 2013); Hungary (Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016); Belgium (Laurentin Gallery, Brussels, 2013, 2016) The Netherlands (Merchanthouse, Amsterdam 2017) and the United States (Janos Gat Gallery, New York, 2007, 2014; Ubu Gallery, New York, 2011, 2014; Shepherd W&K Galleries, New York, 2013; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, 2016)

Notable group exhibitions include the Guggenheim International Award, 1964 at the Guggenheim Museum, New York (1964), as well as Manifeste: Une histoire parallèle, 1960–1990 (1993) and Elles© Centrepompidou: Artistes femmes dans les collections du Centre Pompidou at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2009–11). Retrospectives were also held at the Maison de la culture, Rennes (1974), and Musée de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse (1992), both in France, as well as at the MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Hungary (2010) and Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary (2014).

Due to her extraordinary talent Judit Reigl could be mentioned alongside with the most important female abstract expressionist artists like Lee Krasner, Joann Mitchell, Alma Thomas, Helen Frankenthaler, Perle Fine, Mary Abbott or Corinne Mitchelle West.

Artworks of Judit Reigl are available at the Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts.

 SELECTED  EXHIBITIONS:

2022

• Judit Reigl, Paris et nulle part ailleurs, Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration, Paris

• Judit Reigl, The Shape of Freedom. International Abstraction after 1945, Museum Barberini, Potsdam

• Jean Degottex, Francois Morellet, Judit Reigl, Au coeur de l'abstraction, Collection de la Fondation Gandur pour L'Art, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence

• Je suis la Régle, kamel mennour, Paris
• Judit Reigl, Le Vertige de L'infini, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

2021

• Judit Reigl - premiére abstraction, Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris

2020

• In memoriam Judit Reigl, Kalman Maklary Fine Arts
• Judit Reigl: le déroulement d'une vie, Galerie Laurentin, Paris
• Femmes années 50. Au fil de L'abstraction, peinture et sculpture, Musée Soulages á Rodez
• Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• Penser en formes et en couleurs, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
• La vraie vie est ailleurs! Femmes artistes autour de Marta Pan: Simone Boisecq, Charlotte Calmis, Juana Muller, Véra Pagava, Judit Reigl, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest

2019

• Four Female Abstract Artists, Kalman Maklary Fine Arts
• Back to the 50's, Judit Reigl and Simon Hantai, Kalman Maklary Fine Arts
• Palimpszeszt, Ybl Budai Kreatív Ház, Budapest
• Persona Grata, Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration, Palais de la Porte Dorée

2018 

• Black is a Color, Kalman Maklary Fine Arts

• Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera, At The Met Breuer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

• Judith Reigl and Kurt Kocherscheidt, Shepherd W&K Galleries, New York

• PANTA RHEI, JUDIT REIGL and SHEILA HICKS , Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna

• Judit Reigl, Corps–Écritures,  l'Espace Art Absolument, Paris

• Judit Reigl - Travailler au Corps, Musee d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

• Judit Reigl’s Dance of Death, Shepherd W&K Galleries, New York

• Judit Reigl: Weightlessness, Ubu Gallery, New York

• Matter of Masters: 5 Years of TMH, Dennis Oppenheim, Hilarius Hofstede, Cragie Horsfield, Judit Reigl, Carolee Schneemann, The Merchant House, Amsterdam

2017 

- Specail loans from Judit Reigl les Abattoires, FRANC Midi Pyreénées, Toulouse, France

2016 

- Judit Reigl Late works, The Merchant House, Amsterdam, Hollandia

 - Judit Reigl Body of Music, Retrospective exhibition Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH

 - Judit Reigl - 5 expositions, Paris

2015 

- Judit Reigl Man 1966-1970, Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary

- Reigl Judit Lepel/Kodfejtes, Kepes Intezet, Eger, Hungary

2014 

- Judit Reigl Emptiness and Ecstasy, Retrospective exhibition, Ludwig Museum with collaboration of the Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary

2013 

- Abstract Expressionism 1954-60, Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Budapest

- Judit Reigl Entree-Sortie, Wienerroither & Kohlbacher Gallery, Wien

- Judit Reigl Drawing-Paintings, Laurentin Gallery, Brussels

- Judit Reigl Entrance-Exit 1986-1989, Shepherd W&K Galleries, New-York

2012 

- Judit Reigl in the Collection of the Musee national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris

 - Judit Reigl-Simon Hantai Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Budapest

 - Art Paris, Grand Palais, Paris

 - Judit Reigl - Simon Hantai Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Budapest

 - TEFAF Maastricht - Kalman Maklary Fine Arts Showcase, Maastricht, Nederland

 - Brafa - Kalman Maklary Fine Arts Bruxelles, Belgium

2011 

- Judit Reigl: Recent works on paper, Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Budapest

- Judit Reigl, Rooster gallery, New-York    

2010 

- Kalman Maklary Fine Arts, Biennale des Antiquaires, Grand Palais, Paris

- Judit Reigl: Retrospective exhibition, MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen

- Judit Reigl: Retrospective exhibition, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes 

2009 

- Judit Reigl: Deroulements, Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest

 - Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Art Paris, Grand Palais, Paris    

2008 

- Judit Reigl: Homme, Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest

 - Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Art Paris, Grand Palais, Paris

2007 

- Judit Reigl: Works, Kalman Makláry Fine Arts, Plug, Műcsarnok, Budapest

- Judit Reigl, Déroulements, Galerie L’Or du Temps, Paris Judit Reigl, 2006

- Judit Reigl, Tension 1956-2006, Galerie de France, Paris 

- Judit Reigl: Outburst, works from the 1950’s. Erdész & Makláry Fine Arts, Plug, Műcsarnok, Budapest

2005 

- Reigl, Kuntshalle, Budapest, Hungary  

2004 

- Galerie La Navire, Brest   

2003-2004 

- Salle Judit Reigl dans le parcours des collections du Musée national d’art moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris

- Judit Reigl, peintre, Fondation pour l’art contemporain, Caisse d’Epargne de Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse ; L’Arsenal, Musée de Soissons, Soissons

2001 Judit Reigl, Donation au Musée de Brou, Musée de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse

        Galerie de France, Paris Espace des Blancs-Manteaux (ancienne Galerie Regards), Paris

1999 

- Judit Reigl, Eléments d’un parcours, Abbaye de Beaulieu-en-Rouergue, GinalsJudit Reigl, Hors, Galerie de France, Paris  

1994 

- Judit Reigl, Autour de la donation Goreli, Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

1992 

- Judit Reigl, Musée de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse Galerie de France, Paris

1989 

- Judit Reigl (Peintures 1986-1989), Centre d’arts contemporains, Orléans ; FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand

1985 

- Galerie de France, Paris Judit Reigl, Musée d’Evreux, Ancien Evêché, Evreux

1984 

- Galerie Jolliet, Montréal

1982 

- Galerie Jolliet, Montréal Judit Reigl, L’art de la fugue, Peintures 1980-1982, Galerie de France, Paris

1981 

- Galerie Jolliet, Québec

1980 

- Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris

1979 

- Galerie Jolliet, Québec

1978 

- Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris Judit Reigl, Peintures choisies, 1958-1978, Musée de Peinture, Grenoble

1976 

- Galerie Rencontres, Paris Judit Reigl, Déroulements, 1973-1976 ; Guano, 1958-1965, ARC 2, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

1975 

- Galerie Rencontres, Paris

1974 

- Galerie Rencontres, Paris Judit Reigl, rétrospective, Maison de la Culture, Rennes

1973 

- Galerie Rencontres, Paris

1972 

- Galerie Rencontres, Paris Maison des jeunes et de la culture, Bures-sur-Yvette

1966 

- Galerie Van de Loo, Munich

1962 

- Galerie Kléber (Jean Fournier), Paris

1961 

- Kunstverein, Freibourg im Breisgau, Allemagne

1960 

- Galerie Van de Loo, Essen

1959 

- Galerie Kléber (Jean Fournier), Paris

1958 

- Galerie Van de Loo, Munich

1956 

- Galerie Kléber (Jean Fournier), Paris

1954 

- Galerie de l’Etoile Scellée, Paris (exposition présentée par André Breton)

•Guggenheim Museum, New-York, USA

•Tate Modern, London, Great-Britain

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York, USA

•Museum of Modern Art, (MOMA), New-York, USA

•Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA

•Museum of Fine Arts, Huston, USA

•Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

•Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France

•Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

•Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC), France

•Musée de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse, France

•Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, France

•Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, France

•Musée d'Evreux, France

•Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture de Grenoble, France

•Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France

•Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

•Musée de Soissons, France

•Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, Strasbourg, France

•Musée d'Art contemporain du Val-de-Marne, MACVAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, France

•Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Canada

•Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada

•Musée de Rimouski, Québec, Canada

•Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Arts, Budapest, Hungary

•Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary

•Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary