JUDIT REIGL - Emptiness and Ecstasy
Authors: Julia Fabényi, Róna Kopeczky, Kálmán Makláry, Ágnes Berecz, Germain Viatte, Jean-Jacques Salgon, Sarah Wilson
This book was published on the occasion of Judit Reigl’s retrospective exhibition in Hungary (between March 22 - June 22, 2014, Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest). Judit Reigl was born in 1923 in Hungary and emigrated to France in 1950 to escape the Communist rule, which did not allow her the artistic freedom needed. It is in her adopted homeland, France, that her art has really been recognised. Her work is represented in almost all important French museums of contemporary art, while Hungary has not hosted a solo exhibition of her painting, and no book about her has been published here. When it issued its Alfréd Réth monograph in 2003, Makláry Artworks promised to continue to introduce to the Hungarian public Hungarian-born artists active in France. Happily the publication of this volume coincides with the first proper exhibition in Hungary of Judit Reigl’s art at the Műcsarnok. But the book is far more than an exhibition catalogue. Her oeuvre has made Judit Reigl one of the most important contemporary painters in Europe. Her painting - less well known in Hungary than her peer’s - relies on 20th-century classic modern art, and is an integral part of the world’s contemporary art, offering to its viewer a wealth of experiences.