Tibor Freund: Motion in Paintings

Hungarian Cultural Center presents Tibor Freund: Motion in Paintings

October 2 – November 21, 2008

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 2, 2008, 6-8pm

NEW YORK, NY, August 9, 2008 – The Hungarian Cultural Center presents the unique “motion pictures”—kinetic paintings—of Hungarian artist Tibor Freund. Freund (1910–2007) began working on what he called “motion paintings” in 1957, a form that would preoccupy him for the rest of his life.  Based on a rudimentary 19^th-century invention called the “three-sided picture,” the form enabled the artist to contain as many as six discrete pictorial views within the boundaries of a single painting, with the viewer’s movement being the key to which view became visible. Freund’s interest in the kinetic—in paintings that change—stems from the influence of innovative Hungarian painter, photographer, and Bauhaus teacher, László Moholy-Nagy. His teachings were central to Freund’s interest in the possibilities of the kinetic. Freund’s mastery of this form, and his ability to make his views discrete, is just one of his accomplishments.

 Freund was a visionary—addressing the very current issues of humanism and urbanism with an eye toward the excitement and hope of the future. As an artist and architect, he was very interested in the intersection of the public and private. The fact that he painted a mural for the lobby of Public School #162 in the Bronx, and was a member of the National Society of Mural Painters right up to 1998, suggests that he was just as interested in public art projects as he was in discrete art objects, if not more so.

Freund’s innovative practice defines and occupies a singular place within the history of postwar art. During his lifetime, he created an astonishing body of work. Yet, his story is that of an artist who, though lauded as a genius during his most fruitful years, has been all but forgotten until now. Motion in Paintings offers the public a rare and wonderful opportunity to view his works.

THE ARTIST

Freund was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1910. He had an unusually nomadic professional life before moving to New York in 1953 when he began to paint seriously. In 1932 he earned a degree in architecture in Zurich. Eight years later he went to Tehran. There, he built a sample town and was a maintenance artist for the Golden Mosque, opened a portrait studio, and eventually supervised the architecture of the Palace of Justice. In 1947 he returned to Budapest and continued his work on architecture and industrial designs. But he, like many individuals at that time, was displaced by the expansion of the Soviet Empire and relocated, first to Israel, where he lived for four years, then finally New York, where he spent the rest of his life.

Tibor Freund developed notoriety in New York in the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s due primarily to his creation of “motion paintings” in 1957 which were created to “show our world in motion as seen by the spectator in motion.” He acknowledged the influence of fellow Hungarian born artist Maholy-Nagy, whose book “Vision in Motion” brought up the issue of the mobile viewer. By fusing up to six picture planes into a single composition, Freund was able to create the illusion of change and motion as the viewer looked at the painting from various angles, thus capturing the modern tempo surrounding him.  In 1962-3, Freund’s theory of PAINTING IN SPACE predicted that he would “set canvas-bound painting free.”

During the 1960s and 1970s, Freund had a total of six one-man shows in New York City. The first at the Galerie Norval (1960), the second two at The Contemporaries (1965, 1967) and the final three at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery (1969, 1971, 1974).  He was also featured in several traveling exhibitions and—in a triumphant return to his home country of Hungary—his work was exhibited along side that of Picasso, Vasarely, Arp and Chagall in 1971. Freund died in 2007.

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The Hungarian Cultural Center

Dedicated to enhancing knowledge and appreciation of Hungarian culture, the Hungarian Cultural Center organizes and supports a broad spectrum of events that celebrate Hungary’s past, present and future. The Hungarian Cultural Center is located at 447 Broadway, 5th floor, in New York City and is open to the public Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Admission is free.