Ilka Gedő
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Ilka Gedő (20 May 1921 in Budapest— 1985) was a Jewish Hungarian artist. Her work survives decades of persecution and repression, first by the fascist regime of the 1930s and 1940s and then by the communist regime of the 1950s to 1989.
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[edit] Career
Ilka Gedő was born on 25 May 1921. Her father taught at the Jewish grammar school of Budapest, and some of the leading Hungarian writers and artists of the times were among the family’s circle of friends. She started her artistic career in the late 1930’s visiting private art schools.
The anti-Jewish measures and the upheaval of the war came, but Gedő carried on creating a significant body of graphic works. As a Jew, in 1944 Gedő was imprisoned in the Budapest ghetto, and she drew a remarkable series of ghetto drawings. She avoided the horror, instead representing isolated people of puzzlement, uncertainty and despair in her drawings.
After the war Gedő gained admission to the Budapest Academy of Arts, but she decided to leave the Academy and until 1949, when she stopped artistic work, had created a huge body of drawings that can be divided into series.
She created self portraits which, through their sheer honesty and self-exploration, claim the viewer’s attention. These works are drawn in a way that evokes straightforward physical reality and emotional sensitivity at the same time. Another series, Tables, is devoted to drawing a delicate, small table with an abundant variety of lines and shades, exploring the endless possibilities of representing the visual world.
The third series resulted from repeated visits to the Ganz Factory in Budapest. A combination of silver and gold with pastel crayons transposes the factory rooms into almost mythical spaces.
An interval of 15 years devoted to bringing up a family divides the oeuvre of this artist. Ilka Gedő presented her drawings in 1964 in her own studio. This exhibition gave her the impetus to resume work. In the 1960s, Gedő started to paint in oil. Her creative method follows the call of the instincts but does not forget the discipline of the intellect.
She made “two-step” paintings. She first drew a sketch of her composition, prepared a mock-up and wrote the name of the appropriate colours into the various fields. She prepared a collection of colour samples, and she wrote where the colour would go in the places where they were ultimately applied. She never improvised on her paintings; instead she enlarged the original plan. On her paintings the strength of cold and warm colours appears to be equal. She created her paintings slowly, amidst speculations, recording the steps of the creative process in diaries so that the making of all the paintings can be traced.
Gedő died on 16 June 1985, at the age of 64, a few months before her discovery abroad. The scene of the breakthrough was Glasgow where the Compass Gallery presented her paintings and drawings in 1985. Since then, many of her works passed into public hands: in addition to St. Stephen’s Museum, Székesfehérvár, Hungary and the National Gallery of Hungary, many foreign collections acquired them (The Jewish Museum, New York, Yad Vashem Art Museum, Israel Museum Jerusalem, the Department of Prints and Drawings of the British Museum and the Kunstmuseum (Museum Kunst Palast) of Düsseldorf.
[edit] Exhibitions
One-woman exhibitions in Hungary:
- Studio Exhibition (1965)
- King St. Stephen's Museum, Székesfehérvár, Hungary (1980)
- Dorottya Utca Gallery, Budapest (1982)
- Artists' Colony Gallery, Szentendre, Hungary (1985)
- Palace of Exhibitions, Budapest (1987)
- Gallery of Szombathely (1989)
- Hungarian Jewish Museum, Budapest, [with György Román] (1995)
- Budapest Municipal Picture Gallery, Museum Kiscell (2001)
- Raiffeisen Gallery (2003-2004)
- Hungarian National Gallery (2004-2005).
One-woman exhibitions abroad:
- Compass Gallery, Glasgow (1985)
- Third Eye Centre, Glasgow (1989)
- Janos Gat Gallery, New York (1994 and 1997)
- Yad Vashem Art Museum [with György Román] 1996
- Shepherd Gallery, New York (1995)
- Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin (2006)
[edit] Works in public collections
- The National Gallery of Hungary, Budapest
- The Hungarian Jewish Museum, Budapest
- King St. Stephen's Museum, Székesfehérvár, Hungary
- Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings
- Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Department of Prints and Drawings
- The Jewish Museum, New York
[edit] Literature
• Szabó, Júlia (ed.): Gedő Ilka rajzai és festményei (The Drawings and Paintings of Ilka Gedő), exhibition catalogue, Székesfehérvár, Szent István Király Múzeum, 1980, HU ISBN 963 7131 20 5 HU ISSN 0586 3759
• Ury, Ibolya (ed.): Gedő Ilka, kiállításkatalógus (Ilka Gedő, Exhibition Catalogue), Budapest, a Műcsarnok Dorottya utcai Kiállítóterme, 1982, HU ISBN 963 01 4173 6
• Mucsi, András (ed.): Gedő Ilka (1921-1985) festőművész kiállítása (The Exhibition of Ilka Gedő /1921-1985/), exhibition catalogue, Szentendre, Művésztelepi Galéria, 1985, HU ISBN 963 01 3996 ISSN 0209-4940
• Néray, Katalin (ed.): Gedő Ilka (1921-1985), exhibition catalogue, Budapest, Palace of Exhibitions, 1987, ISBN 963-7162-86-0
• Gálig, Zoltán (ed): Gedő Ilka festőművész rajzai a Szombathelyi Képtárban (Works on Paper by Ilka Gedő at the Municipal Art Museum of Szombathely), Szombathely, Városi Képtár, 1989, ISBN 963 0195 54 2 ISSN 0239 1910
• Semjén, Anita (ed): Áldozatok és gyilkosok / Gedő Ilka gettó-rajzai és Román György háborús bűnösök népbírósági tárgyalásain készült rajzai (Victims and Perpetrators / Ilka Gedő's Ghetto Drawings and György Román's Drawings of the People's Court War Criminals Trials), exhibition catalogue, Budapest, 1995, Hungarian Jewish Museum and Jerusalem, 1996, Yad Vashem Art Museum
• Kashey, Elizabeth (ed): Ilka Gedő (1921-1985) Drawings and Pastels, exhibition catalogue, New York, Shepherd Gallery, 21 East 84th Street, 1995
• Kolozsváry, Marianna (ed.): Gedő Ilka festőművész kiállítása (Exhibition of Ilka Gedő), exhibition catalogue, Budapest, Hungarian National Gallery, 2004, HU ISSN 0231-2387
• György, Péter–Pataki, Gábor, Szabó, Júlia, Mészáros, F. István: Gedő Ilka művészete (1921-1985) – The Art of Ilka Gedő (1921-1985), Budapest, Új Művészet, 1997, ISBN 963 7792 21 X ISSN 1219 4913
• Hajdu, István–Bíró, Dávid: Gedő Ilka művészete, oeuvre katalógus és dokumentumok, Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 2003 ISBN 963 9500 13 5
• István Hajdu–Dávid Bíró: The Art of Ilka Gedő, Oeuvre Catalogue and Documents, Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 2003 ISBN 963 9500 14 3
