István Orosz

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The native form of this personal name is Orosz István. This article uses the Western name order.

István Orosz (b. October 24, 1951 Kecskemét) Hungarian painter, printmaker, graphic designer and animated film director, is known for his mathematically inspired works, impossible objects, optical illusions, double-meaning images and anamorphosises. The geometric art of István Orosz, with forced perspectives and optical illusions, has been compared to works by M. C. Escher. [1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Studied at the Hungarian University of Arts and Design (now Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design) in Budapest as pupil of István Balogh and Ernő Rubik. After graduating in 1975 he began to deal with theatre as stage designer and animated film as animator and film director. He is known as painter, printmaker, poster designer, and illustrator as well. He likes to use visual paradox, double meaning images and illusionistic approaches while following traditional printing techniques such as woodcutting and etching. He also tries to renew the technique of anamorphosis.

István Orosz: Dürer in the Forest
István Orosz: Dürer in the Forest

He is a regular participant in the major international biennials of posters and graphic art and his works has been shown in individual and group exhibitions in Hungary and abroad. Film director at the PannóniaFilm Studio in Budapest, Habil. professor at University of West Hungary in Sopron, co-founder of Hungarian Poster Association, member of Alliance Graphique International (AGI) and Hungarian Art Academie. He often uses OYTIΣ, or Utisz, (pronounced: outis) (No one) as artist's pseudonym.

[edit] Quotes

  • "Utisz - It was the Homeric hero Odysseus, who fought the Cyclops, had used this name, and had put out the monster's eye. I imagine that poster is nothing else but an Odysseus' gesture: some kind of attack upon the eye".
  • "If you want to create a poster try to explain your idea in a sentence. Then try to reduce it, live out phrases, attributes until you just have the bare essentials. When you do not need any letter at all you are ready with the poster".
  • "... When I have drawn these impossible objects, I did hope everybody would understand my intention, the intention of a Hungarian designer at the end of the 20th century who does not tell the truth just in order to be caught in the act."

[edit] Introduction by Guy D'Obonner

During the last two decades - when most of the works shown here were made – the activities of the poster designer, the printmaker, the illustrator, and the film director have completed each other. Many motive, stylistic features, technical solutions appeared in all of the media and for Orosz it seemingly did not cause any problem to cross the borders of the different genres. When he was drawing a poster usually he did it with the preciseness of illustrators, when he was illustrating a book, he did it with the narrative mood of filmmakers, if he was animating films, sometimes he used the several layers approach of etchers and engravers and for prints he often chose the emblematic simplifying way of depiction of posters. If we call him only a poster designer based on his functional prints, we narrow down his field of activity, we go closer to the truth if we associate him with „postering” as a way of thinking, or if we call his many sided image depicting ourselves and our age as the poster-mirror of István Orosz. (Guy d'Obonner: Transfiguration of Poster - detail) [2]

[edit] His poster art

István Orosz was known as poster designer in the first part of his career. He made mainly cultural posters for theatres [3] , movies [4], galleries, [5] museums [6] and publishing houses [7] At the time of the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe he drew some political posters [8] too. His "Tovarishi Adieu" (also used with text "Tovarishi Koniec" – that means Comrades it is over) appeared in many countries and it was known as symbolic image of changes in the area. [9]

[edit] His anamorphoses

One of Orosz's anamorphoses
One of Orosz's anamorphoses

Artists who design anamorphosis (anamorphosis is Greek for "re-transformation") play with perspective to create a distorted image that appears normal only when viewed from the correct angle or with the aid of curved mirrors.[10]

The technique was often used by Renaissance-era artists. Orosz tries to renew the technique of anamorphosis and his aim is to develop it as well when he gives a meaning to the distorted image, too. It is not an amorph picture any more, but a meaningful depiction that is independent from the result that appears in the mirror[11] or viewed from a special point of view. [12] [13]

This approach of anamorphoses is suitable for expressing more sophisticated messages, and it fits to show more amusing fun. [14][15]

[edit] Exhibitions

István Orosz: Corner House
István Orosz: Corner House
István Orosz: Crossroads
István Orosz: Crossroads

[edit] Films

  • 1977 Silence
  • 1978 Towards to the Salt Celler
  • 1980 Private Nightmare
  • 1984 Ah, America!
  • 1989 Mind the Steps!
  • 1993 The Garden
  • 1995 Cry!
  • 2001 Black Hole - White Hole
  • 2004 Time Sights

[edit] Awards

  • 1990 Gold Medal at the Biennial of Graphic Design, Brno
  • 1991 First Prize at the International Poster Biennial, Lahti
  • 1991 Main Prize of „Mediawave” Film Festival, Győr
  • 1994 Icograda-prize at the International Poster Show, Chaumont
  • 2000 Creative Distinction Award of European Design Annual, Dublin
  • 2001 Gold medal at the Annual Exhibition of Society of Illustrators, New York
  • 2005 Main Prize of the KAFF Animated Film Festival, Kecskemét
  • 2007 Pro Ludo Ring, Budapest
  • 2007 Plakat Kunst Hof Ruettenscheid Prize, Essen

[edit] Books

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Releases - Perception & Deception: The Works of István Orosz" (overview), Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA, December 1998, webpage: MoravianEdu-1998-2.
  2. ^ "Posters - István Orosz". Edited by Vladislav Rostoka, Rabbit & Solution Studio, Bratislava, 2002, webpage: [1]
  3. ^ Theater poster
  4. ^ Film poster
  5. ^ Exhibition poster
  6. ^ Museum poster
  7. ^ Book poster
  8. ^ Political poster
  9. ^ Tovarishi Koniec!
  10. ^ Technique of anamorphic distortion
  11. ^ Anamorphosis with double meanings: a landscape in the horizontal sheet of paper and portrait of Jules Verne in the mirror cylinder
  12. ^ Anamorphosis with double meanings: viewed in the traditional way a theatre in the age of William Shakespeare.
  13. ^ ...and the same picture viewed from a narrow angle : the portrait of Shakespeare
  14. ^ Anamorphic illustration for the narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe: "The Raven"
  15. ^ The poet in the mirror - the same illustration with a chrome-plated brass cylinder

[edit] External links

István Orosz: Self-mazed man
István Orosz: Self-mazed man