NUDE Photo exhibition in Hungary July 27- Oct 15

This summer, Pajta Galeria and Kondor Studio stage a collaborative between two internationally acclaimed photo artists. The exhibition Laszlo Torok & Laszlo Kondor / Blue and Black – the Nude, features side by side displays of their widely diverse treatment of the human form. This is a visual commentary on the unique 20th-century experience of two masters of their medium. 

The life and work of these Hungarian artists have been impacted by the time when the world was politically divided into East and West. Two distinctly different oeuvres have emerged, each in reaction to the events that formed their aesthetic sensibilities and their corresponding work.

The exhibit includes 80 images spanning from 1973 to 2015.  

The photos are selected from Torok’s and Kondor’s extensive archives, revisited with an eye for what the collections have in common rather than how they are different.  They contrast and compare their long fascination with the human form. The energetic pair discovered some surprising similarities between their works, but, like a slant rhyme, there is a close but not always exact correspondence of the meanings. 

Torok’s emblematic women are washed in his iconic sky-blue, set in visually challenging constructions. This blue is his trademark. Many of the images were created with and in tribute to others at the heart of the photographic community centered on him and Pajta Galeria in Salfold. For 28 years this countryside oasis inspired countless artists and friends who gathered there. 

Torok is a legend in the history of Hungarian photography and exhibitions of his photographs have been held in various prominent galleries and museums in thirteen countries worldwide.

Kondor’s bold black and white photographs were taken during his time in America running a successful commercial studio in Chicago. They are stark and architecturally stylized a crystallization of form. This is the first exhibition of this work in Hungary.  Kondor is better known for his work as a witness to world events from the US Vietnam War with its inevitable anti-war violence on American streets, and the political halls of Chicago’s Iconic Mayor Richard J. Daley. (1902 – 1976) This work has been exhibited and held in prominent museums, galleries, and institutions in America and Hungary.