L. Kovásznai Viktória: Modern magyar éremművészet 2. 1976–2000 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2004/4)

and surface texture of the medal. Farkas ( Variations to a Surface II-III, 1982); Alps, series, 1987) and Palotás (Danube, Series 2, 1978) used the contrast between polished and dark patinated surface sections; in another medal (Elements, series, 1982) Palotás and Holdas (Underground People II-III, 1980) achieved the wished result by combining and contrasting two different materials. Their moulding of forms is also similar, moving on the borderline between real and abstract forms based on the experience of nature. At first drawn to more abstract forms, later Farkas used natural geometry and tectonic forms, and Holdas also alternated the abstract forms and organic motifs of a surrealistic effect. In this period Holdas, like Tornay, experimented with the elaborated of signs carrying symbolic contents, achieved by formal reduction. A powerful drive to communicate also binds the three artists. The artists discussed in the preceding actually belong to the last range of the period, but in the work of Tamás Vígh, András Kiss Nagy, Enikő Szöllőssy and Gábor Gáti the medal had been present in the earlier decades as well and always had an important role. The representatives of the former medallic style based on nature symbolism were advocates of a philosophy and ethic which had also guided Béni Ferenczy and Miklós Borsos in their approach to the medal. Though all of them knew and took into account the new methods of medallic art, they created original formal and technological solutions practically relying on their own achievements. What is more, ihey have done so by refusing to give tip the lyrical, symbolic contents of the works - also based on their individual stock of experiences - or the possibility of communication with the realm of the recipient's experiences. With his Academic Medal of 1961 and his cycle made to Jván Rozgonyi's verse lines in 1977 Vígh created epochal works. Removed far from the conventional medals, his pieces are cut up, bent and engraved circles. One piece is a dissected and reassembled medal, the other is like a woven fabric taken to pieces, the third is two medals intersecting. These works resemble two-sided medals and the artist also engraved a text in them, retaining some characteristics of the classical medal. The other three pieces are of a different type, attached to the Young Worker series (1978) in some respects. Returning to the approximative circle, Vígh handled the forms jutting out of the surface freely: among the animated projections, now a face, now a head raised high can be made out. These series indicate how the art of the medal can be considerably renewed while the reference to the traditional medal remains perceptible. All that applies to the work of András Kiss Nagy as well. Not only the approach to the art form and the aspiration to create symbols, but also the similar turn of mind and experience of forms linked up the two artists. Kiss Nagy also split, crumpled and embossed the surface, giving form to spatial layers, inspiring the sense of space and contrasting different forms (Mementos of the Future, series, 1982). The frequent contrast between the torn, tortured surface sections and the polished surfaces creates a peculiarly tense atmosphere. Kiss Nagy staked out a new course of medallic art with his openable Pandora's box in 1973 as he did again in the studied period: Requiem for a Brick. Maker (1976) broke a lance for many-part medals, his Bronze Graphic Arts (series, 1987) justified the presence of a unique idea (a variant of the woven structures). The medals of Enikő Szöllőssy and Gábor Gáti also reveal similar fundamental principles. In their intellectually conceived works they formulated abstract thoughts difficult to convey in plasticity. Though also relying on the effect of contrasts, they used fewer tools and a different formal idiom. Looking for a new system of symbols, Gáti disrupted the surface and applied a multilayered spatial system created by the assembling of the parts (Etudesfor Voices, series, 1979). Szöllőssy preferred to choose themes for her series that allowed the representation of organic processes and movements in formally reserved, concentrated expression (Biography, 1977; Help, 1983). In the mid-1980s, the multitude of methods was a sign of the stagnation and not of the efflorescence of medallic art. Despite the many novel solutions, the innovations of the previous decade lost their penetration, and the art showed signs of exhaustion. It had to be realized that medallic art was treading a path that had a dead end. None of the theoretical problems of the profession could be approached by consensus in any of their aspects. It became conspicuous that no young artist entered for the exhibitions, and many deserted for good, or for some time, the medal. In spite of that, some impetus was given to the art by preparations for the FIDEM exhibition held in Budapest in 1994. As a result, Hungarian medallic art could preserve its place in the vanguard of international art, hence the years between 1987 and 2000 is interpreted as the period of the rallying of forces, of constant search for the right course. In a situation of diversity caused by the need to step forward it is hard to discern some general characteristic or main current, but a few generalizable phenomena can be outlined. Experimenting did not stop, some artists going to extreme forms of expression in their search for new solutions. Of course, the use of an unusual material cannot be justified unless it is paired with formal revival or an individual tone. With the expansion of the possibility of lost-wax casting, medals drawing close to small sculpture increased in number.