László Lakner (Hungarian: [ˈlaːsloː ˈlɒknɛr]; born April 15, 1936, in Budapest) is a Hungarian-German painter, sculptor and conceptual artist. He lives and works in Berlin. László Lakner was born in Budapest in 1936. His father was the architect László Lakner (same name), his mother Sára Lakner, born Sárközy. Lakner is the father of the Hungarian artist Antal Lakner, who was born in 1966. After a long period in the cities Essen and Berlin, László Lakner now lives and works exclusively in Berlin, in the Charlottenburg district. Among other art shows, he was invited three times to participate in the Venice Biennale (1972, 1976 and 1990) and once to the documenta in Kassel (1977).
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The artist
From 1950, László Lakner attended the Art Gymnasium in his native home Budapest. He then studied painting with Professor Aurél Bernáth at the Hungarian Academy for Fine Arts in Budapest from 1954 until his graduation in 1960. In 1959 he created the first of numerous works of art based on found photographs. In 1963, Lakner was approved for his first trip to Western countries. He visited the Federal Republic of Germany and attended the Venice Biennale in Italy in 1964. In 1968 he traveled on a scholarship from the Museum Folkwang, which permitted him a return to the Federal Republic of Germany and visit Switzerland In 1972, Lakner worked for two months in the famous guest house of the Museum Folkwang in the city of Essen, where Martin Kippenberger also worked in a studio some years later. In 1974, he was invited to Berlin with a DAAD scholarship for the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and decided to emigrate to Germany. In 1976 he was awarded the Bremen "Art Prize of Böttcherstraße" and in 1977 he was invited to the documenta VI in Kassel, where he exhibited several works from the fields of painting, drawing and book objects.
In the same year he received the German Critics' Prize and worked during 1981-1982 with a scholarship from the Berlin Senate in New York at MOMA P.S.1 art studio and gallery, at the same time as the Essen sculptor Carl Emanuel Wolff.
In 1998, he received the Kossuth Prize, the most prestigious Hungarian State Prize for his artistic work. In 2000, his self-portrait was included in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery / Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
The teacher
In 1979, Prof. Paul Vogt, the director of the Museum Folkwang, initiated the appointment of László Lakner as a lecturer of painting at the Essen University of Applied Sciences. He also lectured in the Department of Art History at the Free University of Berlin between 1979 and 1980. In 1982 he was finally appointed to the University of Essen (now the University of Duisburg-Essen), where he taught as a professor of experimental design until his retirement in 2001. In these 19 years he worked in Berlin and in his studio in Essen, which he left after 2002 to settle permanently in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. Lakner's professorship for experimental design, later occupied by Jörg Eberhard, required a multidisciplinary expertise, as he supervised students from both the University of Essen and the current Folkwang University of the Arts. His students from this period include, among others, the cabaret artist and photographer Dieter Nuhr, painters Dirk Hupe, Jürgen Paas, Eberhard Ross, photographer and stage designer Johannes Gramm, Günter Sponheuer and Frank Piasta
Development of artwork
Since his beginnings in the 1950s, Lakner's work has moved with great flexibility and ease among many artistic forms, such as realistic and object-free representations in painting, photography, textual work, film, objects and sculptures. Most of his work was powered by his conceptual way of thinking, and independent of the art form and media used.
He turned his attention repeatedly to the same topics and motives within language, literature and the appearance of writing (see Paul Celan pictures). The artistic results could be transformations of books or manuscripts through paintings or the integrations of books into art objects (see Buchaxt (book-axe)). Other topics include the representations of heads and skulls (see Bandaged Heads) as metaphors or symbolisms of death.
When Lakner modified objects and written texts from famous artists and philosophers, he created a new artistic environment for them. The transition of one art form into another enabled Lakner to add complementary meanings to the quoted works, which would have been impossible if they remained in their original art form.
This recontextualisation could inspire associations with powerful symbolic potential. Since his artistic origins are in realism, Lakner's artwork has evolved using a rich artistic language full of interwoven references and meanings.
1950s to 1970s
Lakner participated in IPARTERV exhibitions in Budapest in 1968 and 1969, which united the leading critical avant-garde artists in Hungary. In doing so, he presented works that subtly contained contemporary and cultural references. Parallel to non-representational pictures, which are to be understood as experimental, he painted realistic pictures from found photographic documents as early as the late 1950s.
Whilst demonstrating his virtuosity through painting, Lakner inspired associations between the history of art and contemporary political issues (see Seamstresses listen to a speech by Hitler).
Lakner also closely examined the appropriateness of the artistic media used in Eastern European countries with their respective social reality. His observations allowed him to delve deeper into the world of realistic painting.
Lakner also created images that could be attributed to Pop Art (see Rose, 1968, Mund-Tondo / Mouth-Tondo, 1968, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest). He also experimented with assemblages (see Fugitives, 1966, Hungarian National Gallery and Letter to Barbara, 1964), monochrome paintings, posters and conceptual art; they incorporated sometimes humor. Furthermore, he also painted twin images that juxtaposed the same motif but in two different lighting and color situations
(see Danae, 1967, Ludwig-Múzeum, Budapest). Here, Lakner examined the limitations and possibilities within his realistic representations, creating a lasting theme that he continued to work with in Germany.
In his conceptual art Lakner applies various methods of artistic transformation of literature as well as language. A major work in 1970 used a book on aesthetics, written by the Hungarian philosopher George Lukács, who signed it for him. Lakner tied it shut using a piece of string. He then placed the laced book on his studio wall, photographed it and then transformed it into a screen printed image. This work (and its novel method of fabrication) was exhibited in 1972 at the Venice Biennale in the International Pavilion. Lakner continued working with this process by lacing other books, as well as creating photorealistic paintings of such situations.
1980s to the present
Lakner's guest stay 1981-1982 in New York at MoMA PS1 studio and gallery was significant. Here Lakner experienced the illness and death of a good friend. During this time, he became also aware of graffiti on the walls of houses and in subway shafts. As a result, he painted on large bed sheets, in which individual words or slogans were applied with spray paint. "At that time, the graffiti of the Puerto Rican boys in the streets of New York meant more to me than anything else I saw in museums and galleries." He wanted "Black Milk", the words from Paul Celan's poem Death Fugue, "written big on a wall with a flamethrower." In Isa Pur, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, he cites the oldest Hungarian Funeral Sermon and Prayer written in Latin script: “Behold, we are dust and ashes”. The single letters above the patchy colored ground are created by spray paint, or the paint is scratched away, reinforcing his narrative about life and death.
From the second half of the 1980s the abstract drawings, which could partly be read as rudimentary writing, were etched on thick impasto layers of paint. This technique resulted in pictures with graphic entanglements and lines above the color ground (see work group of splitted images on a box-like deep canvas, 1994). In addition, he also made realistic sculptural works in bronze, which integrated not only the human figure, but also books (see Babel, 1985). On the monument for the Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti, Lakner shows his inner impressions and feelings, created by the poems, on the surface of an imaginary book, which is cast in bronze. The scripture on the tombstone of John Keats, the romantic English poet, ‘Here lies one whose name is writ in water’, inspired Lakner's painting, Keats' grave.
From the mid-1990s, Lakner's interest returned to photography, which he was able to use conceptually. For example, in Paris he walked around in circles at the fictitious place where the poet Paul Celan committed suicide. Later, he created large-format photo sequences of these places (see exhibition 1999, Galerie Nothelfer, Berlin). In addition, representational images were also created with a new examination of the classical art of painting (see Berenice according to Edgar Allan Poe, 2004 – 2010).
Interest in Asian cultures
During the Vietnam war (1955-1975) Lakner's interest turned to Asia. Although he did not understand the meaning of calligraphies he saw, he was fascinated by their form and began to paint them. Often, he did not follow the method of calligraphy (painting with ink on rice paper with fast movements), but painted them with oil on canvas with meticulous precision. Not limiting himself with only that technique, he also completely reimagined the Little Red Book "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung" and created a new version of it with the title MAO BIBLE. Instead of being a source of Mao's ideology for the Cultural Revolution, the book is tightly bound with ropes and it is not possible to open it. Some versions of this "Bible" are cast in bronze.
Another work was produced from an idealised Chinese photo, depicting farmers in the mountains being helped by Chinese soldiers. Lakner enlarged it to create a human-size photorealistic painting. The hand-written greeting of the newspaper editor who sent the photo to him, is also painted on the canvas.
Thus, the results of Lakner's Asian inspirations are artworks which are, despite their Asian topics, not copies of Asian art. They are rather transformations from Asian into Western traditions. They represent Lakner's conceptual innovations and multitude of artistic methods, with which he continues to explore the world.
Works in public collections
Germany:
Museum Ludwig, Aachen
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
Paula Modersohn-Becker Foundation, Bremen
Museum Folkwang, Essen
Art collection of the University of Freiburg im Breisgau
Museum Ludwig, Köln
Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal
Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, from 2010 Kunsthalle, Bremen
Netherlands:
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Poland:
Museum of modern art, Łódź
Hungary:
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Ludwig-Museum, Budapest
Petöfi-Literatur-Museum, Budapest
Kiscelli-Museum, Budapest
Xántus János Museum, Győr
Városi Müvészeti Museum, Győr
Hatvany Lajos Museum, Hatvan
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions (selection):
1969 KKI Galeria, Budapest
1974 Neue Galerie – Collection Ludwig, Aachen
1975 Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck
1975 Neuer Berliner Kunstverein und DAAD, Berlin
1975 Galerie Folker Skulima, Berlin
1976 Galerie Denise René-Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
1979 Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster
1983 Galerie Bertha Urdang, New York
1987 Forum Kunst, Rottweil
1998 Stadsschouwburg Heerlen, Niederlande
2004 Zacheta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki (Nationalgalerie), Warschau
2004 Galeria Sztuki (Kunsthalle), Posen, Polen
2004 Ludwig-Museum, Budapest
2006 Augsburger Kunstverein
2006 Galerie Georg Nothelfer, Berlin
2007 Petöfi Irodalmi Museum, Budapest
2011 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Participations in exhibitions:
1967 XV. Premio Lissone, Milano
1972 Venice Biennale, International Section: Pavilion of Graphic
Literature (selection)
In English
(The English Literature list is much shorter than the German. Therefore, see also the German Literature list below this English list.)
Promote, Tolerate, Ban: Art and Culture in Cold War Hungary Exhibition catalogue. Edited by Cristina Cuevas-Wolf and Isotta Poggi. Essays by Katalin Cseh-Varga, Cristina Cuevas-Wolf, Dávid Fehér, Steven Mansbach, Géza Perneczky, Isotta Poggi, and Tibor Valuch. 160 pages, 8 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches, 40 color and 20 b/w illustrations, ISBN 978-1-60606-539-6, hardcover. Getty Publications, Imprint: Getty Research Institute, 2018
The Montage Connection between John Heartfield and László Lakner: Artistic Resistance and a New Leftism in Sixties Europe
Flashes of the Future - The Art of the 68ers or The Power of the Powerless. Exhibition catalogue of Ludwig Forum Aachen, 2018
Dávid Fehér: László Lakner, Budapest: Hungart Publications, 2016 [1]
Dávid Fehér: László Lakner: Seamstresses Listen to Hitler’s Speech, Dávid Fehér ed., cat. Budapest: Museum of Fine Arts, 2011 [2]
Dávid Fehér: Polyphonic Oeuvre. On László Lakner’s Art, in: László Lakner: Selected Works, exh cat. Budapest: Trapéz Galéria, 2019, 3–10. [3]
Dávid Fehér: Consonants of Karl Marx. Left vs. Left in the Hungarian Neo-Avantgarde: The Case of László Lakner, Tomus 56, Acta Historiae Artium, 2015, 343–353. [4]
Dávid Fehér: Beyond the Monochrome: Polychromy and monochromy in the art of László Lakner, in: Lakner László: Overview and Monochromy. Selected Works, László Hegyeshalmi – Dávid Fehér eds., exh. cat. Veszprém: House of Arts László Vass Collection, 2018, 9–17. [5]