The works of the Csongrád artist colony have arrived in Szeged

Free in the open – since the beginning, this motto has defined the acid and pepper of the 34-year-old PleinAir International Creative Center in Csongrád. However, this almost three and a half decades, although a significant immersion, does not encompass the entire history of the creative base in Csongrád. The source can be traced all the way back to the sixties, when the students of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts spent their summer internships in the town of Körös-Torok. After graduating, five young artists, Sándor Aranyi, Károly Klimó, Gábor Nagy, Tamás Szikora and Gábor Dienes, officially founded the artist colony in Csongrád. In 1975, they received the Csongrád Creative Building as a base from the city.

Sándor Aranyi was the mastermind and one of the founders of the artist colony in Csongrád. Photo: Kata Koós

The artist colony in Csongrád was based on a French model

At the beginning of the nineties, I was invited to the artist colony in Mirabel in the south of France. We liked that milieu so much that we also did it in Csongrád the following year

– recalled the beginnings of the PleinAir International Creative Colony, Sándor Aranyi, the founder and leader of the artist colony, president of the Szög-Art Art Association.

– Plein air means outdoors. This is possible at the artist colony in Csongrád, but you can also work in a studio. There is a separate sculpture and graphics workshop, a painting studio, and even a bronze casting workshop. So, in our case, it doesn’t just mean outdoors, it also means free. Anyone can create anything, there are no restrictions, the painter continued.

He also said that artists have the opportunity to roam between art forms at the artist colony. Painters can try sculpting, graphic artists can try painting.

Paintings, graphics and sculptures were also produced at this summer’s Csongrád artist camp. Photo: Kata Koós

An eclectic and impulsive exhibition was opened

True to tradition, this year in July the artists populated the creative house located in Öregszőlők. Visual artists came from six different countries and created for two weeks. A large-scale exhibition of the fruits of their work opened at the beginning of August in the City Gallery in Csongrád. A significant part of the exhibition’s material can now also be viewed by the public in Szeged, as the SZTE JGYPK Drawing-Art History Department open exhibition on Thursday.

2024-09-26 19:30:18