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Days of Hungarian Culture at ROSPHOTO
The ROSPHOTO State Museum and Exhibition Centre, in collaboration with the Hungarian Cultural Centre (Liszt Institute), presents the project Cultural Assemblage.
The exhibition programme comprises two parts: works by Hungarian photographer and artist József Kádár from the ROSPHOTO collection, and the series Images of Budapest by contemporary photographer Giampiero Assumma.
The title refers to the artistic concept of assemblage — a work in which individual elements come together to form a unified whole. In a similar way, the project brings together two artists from different generations and with distinct artistic approaches.
Árpád Szenes. From the “Portraits” Series
Paris, 1980
André Kertész Signing a Catalogue. From the “Portraits” Series
Hans Hartung and Jacques Chirac. From the “Portraits” Series
Udaipur. Gate. From the “India” Series
1984
Hungarian visual culture of the 20th century developed in close dialogue with international artistic movements. The avant-garde, Constructivism, and the experiments of the Bauhaus opened up new possibilities for working with the image, while many Hungarian artists continued their careers beyond the country’s borders.
Among them was József Kádár (1936–2019), a painter, graphic artist, photographer, and collector. Born in Debrecen and a graduate of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, he moved to Paris in the late 1960s, where a new chapter in his artistic career began, marked by his growing engagement with photography.
Kádár’s work is difficult to associate with any single artistic movement. He worked across portraiture, fashion and advertising photography, as well as more experimental forms of photographic practice. In France, he created the series Portraits, capturing members of his close circle as well as prominent figures in the Hungarian artistic community. The photographs feature André Kertész, Victor Vasarely, Lucien Hervé, and Hans Hartung.
The ROSPHOTO collection holds an archive of Kádár’s photographs with the artist’s own inscriptions and comments, including the series Portraits and the cycles of “distorted images” made during his travels, India and Jerusalem. The exhibition explores the artist’s photographic legacy, which remains relatively little known to Russian audiences.
About the author
József KádárLe K’dar1936–2019
Hungarian painter, graphic artist, sculptor, photographer, and collector.
Born in Debrecen, Kádár graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest (1956–1961), where he studied under renowned Hungarian artists Aurél Bernáth and Géza Fónyi. In Hungary, he became known as an Expressionist and figurative artist. In 1969, he moved to Paris, where during his early years in France he became interested in Surrealism and Constructivism, later developing his own approaches to dualistic and horizontal painting. At the same time, he turned to mail art and the creation of artist’s books and livres-objets.
From 1979 onward, Kádár devoted himself to experimental photography. His photographs and photograms reflected his travels to Israel, India, Italy, Greece, and Spain. That same year, he began working with electrography. In the early 1980s, he started using photocopying as an artistic medium, copying, enlarging, reducing, and distorting his photographs and collages. In 1985, he abandoned painting to focus entirely on electrography. Kádár also created three-dimensional relief works using electrographic techniques. His approach to synthetic art is characterised by rigorous compositions, geometric forms, and Constructivist principles.
Kádár was also known as an art theorist and an organiser of exhibitions and biennials, held in Budapest (1992–1994), Berlin (1994), Seoul (1995), Szombathely (1996), and Hajdúszoboszló (1997). He published and edited several journals, including Revue d’Art (from 1984), Parisiens Hongrois (from 1984), Revue Enveloppe (from 1992) in Paris, and Électrographie (from 1992) in Budapest.
In 1990, Kádár returned to Hungary, where he founded the Graphic Art Biennial in Győr and the International Museum of Contemporary Art in Hajdúszoboszló, established on the basis of his extensive private collection. He also founded the A–Z group, bringing together artists who create their works using electronic technologies.
Oksana Yakimenko — Hungarian studies scholar, translator (member of the Union of Translators of Russia), and literary scholar.
The second part of the project presents a series of photographs of the Hungarian capital by contemporary artist Giampiero Assumma (b. 1969), a photographer and media artist, and the winner of first prize in the Social Documentary category of the Hungarian Press Photo Competition.
Born in Naples, Assumma has worked in Paris, Berlin, and Budapest. Since 2019, he has lived and maintained an active exhibition practice in Moscow.
The series Images of Budapest explores the everyday life of the Hungarian capital and its inhabitants. One of its central themes is the urban environment. Assumma is interested not only in Budapest’s architectural landscape, but also in the ways people interact with the city and in its emotional atmosphere.
Budapest, 2018
Liszt Institute — Hungarian Cultural Centre
Giampiero Assumma is a photographer and media artist. Born in Naples, Italy, in 1969, he began working with photography in the 1990s, focusing primarily on documentary photography and urban landscape.
A significant part of Assumma’s artistic career is connected with Budapest. Among the projects he created in the Hungarian capital is This Is Not My Bed, which explores the lives of people experiencing homelessness. The series was awarded first prize in the Social Documentary category of the Hungarian Press Photo Competition.
Giampiero Assumma has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work has been published in international art and photography magazines. Since 2019, he has lived and worked in Russia, continuing his active artistic practice.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 — In Moscow’s Unfading Light, Andrey Cheglakov Foundation, Moscow2024 — Behind the Mirror, Collezione Art Gallery, Novosibirsk2024 — In the Light of Naples, Italian Cultural Institute, Moscow2024 — Across the Mirror, Drugoe Delo Gallery, Moscow2023 — Visions of Moscow, Bakhmetyevsky Salon, Moscow2019 — Die Maßnahme in Moscow, Bertolt Brecht Museum, Berlin2018 — In Your Hands, Kromia Gallery, Naples2017 — The Lower World, Ping Pong Gallery, Malmö2006 — Il Regista di Matrimoni — Portraits of a Film Set, Colonne Gallery, Parma, Italy2002 — Time, Place, Metal, Castel dell’Ovo, Naples, Italy
AWARDS
2019 — Hungarian Press Photo Competition — First Prize in the Social Documentary category2007 — CliCiak National Cinema Photography Competition, Italy — First Prize for Best Cinematic Portrait of the Year2006 — CliCiak National Cinema Photography Competition, Italy — First Prize for Best Black-and-White Series on Cinema
The two parts of the project reveal different facets of Hungarian cultural life. Like an assemblage, they bring together different eras, artistic traditions, and individual approaches. Photography thus serves as a universal language of cultural dialogue, mutual discovery, and understanding.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a rich cultural programme at ROSPHOTO, including artist talks, thematic lectures, and film screenings.
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