Ilona Keserü (born

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

, Hungary, 29 November 1933) is a Hungarian painter, professor emerita,

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize (, ) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1936, by the Hungarian National Assembly, to acknowledge outstanding personal and grou ...

winner.

Life and career

Ilona Keserü was born in Pécs, Hungary. She studied at the Free School of Art (Pécs) between 1946 and 1950, then at the High School of Fine and Applied Art (Budapest) between 1950 and 1952. She was accepted to the Academy of Fine Art in 1952, where, after completing the painting and mural courses, she graduated in 1958. During the first three years at the college her professor had been László Bencze, followed by

István Szőnyi István Szőnyi (1894-1960) was a Hungarian painter and printmaker noted for works such as ''The Bend of the Danube and Zebegény.'' He and his family rescued Jews during the Holocaust. Hence they were declared Righteous Among the Nations Rig ...

. However, she considers

Ferenc Martyn Ferenc Martyn (1899 – 1986) was an artist and sculptor, Hungarian-born descendant of the Martyn tribe of County Galway, descended from the same branch of the Tribe as Edward Martyn of Tullira (1859 – 1923). His great-grandfather and brothe ...

as her real master, who had been overseeing her professional development from as early as 1945.Ilona Keserü Ilona ''Works 1982-2008'' - page 62 Keserü was a member of the Iparterv Group and the Atelier Budapest. From 1960 she worked for the Belles-lettres and the Ferenc Móra Publishing Houses as an illustrator. In 1962 she received a scholarship from the Italian government and followed the courses of the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma The Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma is a public tertiary academy of art in Rome, Italy. It was founded in the sixteenth century, but the present institution dates from the time of the unification of Italy and the capture of Rome by the Kingdom ...

for a year. There she had her first show at the Galleria Bars in 1963. She then returned to Hungary and besides painting, she dedicated herself to designing sets and costumes for performances at the National Theatre, the Katona József Theatre, the Opera House, and the Ódry Stage in Budapest, the Gergely Csíky Theatre in Kaposvár, the Katona József Theatre in Kecskemét and the Hungarian Theatre in Targu Mures (Romania). Ilona Keserü showed her first abstract paintings at the Jókai Klub in Budapest in 1964, then regularly thereafter in Budapest and various Hungarian cities. In 1972 she exhibited in Czechoslovakia, then, in the summer of 1974 she painted a mural in Vence (France). She also worked on a mural for the new Sports Palace in Budapest in 1979. From 1963 onwards she has taken part in numerous group-shows throughout the world. For example, at the Olympiade des Arts in Seoul, South Korea in 1988,''Olympiade des Arts, Olympiad of Art'' - page 680 at the Das Offene Bild in Münster, Germany in 1992. Ilona Keserü taught drawing and painting at the

University of Pécs The University of Pécs ( , PTE; ) is one of the largest higher education institutions in Hungary. The history of the university began in the Middle Ages, when in 1367, at the request of Louis I of Hungary, King Louis I the Great, Pope Urban V gr ...

from 1983 to 2003 (from 1991 as professor). From 2003 to 2008, as professor emerita, she organized short painting courses and exhibitions for Doctorate students entitled Színerő (Colour Force), a platform for creating and presenting works of large scale at the unused great halls of the Zsolnay Factory in Pécs. She is one of the founders of the Master School of Fine Arts in Pécs. She also gave lectures at universities abroad as a guest professor: at the École des Beaux Arts (Cergy-Pontoise, France) in 1985, and at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) in 1998. Throughout her life, Keserü took part in study trips to various countries from Poland to the US. Ilona Keserü received the Mihály Munkácsy Prize in 1984, became an Artist of Merit in 1989, and was awarded the Cross Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic in 1996. She became a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts in 1993. In 2000 she was awarded the Kossuth Prize and in 2014 the Artist of the Nation Award. Ilona Keserü lives and works in Budapest and Pécs, Hungary.

Legacy and collections

Her work was included in the 2021 exhibition ''

Women in Abstraction Women in Abstraction. Another History of Abstraction in the 20th Century or ''Elles font l'abstraction. Une autre histoire de l'abstraction au XXe siècle'' was a major exhibition of 20th century abstract art created by women. It was curated by ...

'' at the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

. In 2023 the

Hungarian National Gallery The Hungarian National Gallery (also known as Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, ), was established in 1957 as the national art museum. It is located in Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary. Its collections cover Hungarian art in all genres, including the w ...

held a retrospective exhibition entitled ''Ilona Keserü 90. Self-Powered Pictures. A Selection from the Graphic Oeuvre''. Her work is in the

, the Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

and the MNB Arts and Culture collection.

Notes

References

* ''Olympiade des Arts, Olympiad of Art'' - published by the Seoul Olympic Organising Committee (SLOOC), edited by Ante Glibota, Paris Art Centre 1988 * ''Das Offene Bild'' - Münster, 1992. * Ilona Keserü Ilona ''Works 1982-2008'' - published by MODEM Modern Debreceni Művészeti Közhasznú Társaság, 2009. * Ilona Keserü Ilona ''Works 1959-1982'' - edited and published by Ilona Keserü Ilona, * Ilona Keserü Ilona ''Approach Tangle Stream - An investigation of Causes and Effects in Ilona Keserü Ilona's Oeuvre'' - published by Katalin Néray, director of Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, 2004. * ''Women in the Arts'' - published by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Fall 2008 (volume 26, no. 3) * ''Groupe Iparterv - Le progrés de l'illusion 1968-69 - The third generation of the Hungarian avant-garde'' - published by András Ecsedi-Derdák, Institut hongrois de Paris, 2010. * ''Studio - International Journal of Modern Art'' - published by Studio International Publications Ltd., London, edited by Peter Townsend, March 1974 (volume 184, n.o.964) p. 105 * ''Aktuelle Kunst aus Ungarn, László Fehér - István Haász - Ilona Keserü Ilona - Károly Klimó'' - published by 2006.

External links

Kieselbach Gallery and Auction House, Budapest

Conversation with Ilona Keserü
in Art Magazine 2017
Ilona Keserü
Secondary Archive, Platform for women artists from Central and Eastern Europe
Ilona Keserü
catalogue from 2020 exhibition by Stephen Friedman Gallery
Celebrating Ilona Keserü
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keseru Ilona, Ilona 1933 births Living people 20th-century Hungarian women artists 21st-century Hungarian women artists People from Pécs