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

There have indeed been a few interesting ideas in the search for new directions and the stretching of the limits of the medal. Composite medals were mentioned in connection with András Kiss Nagy: the parts of his modular medal can be slipped into each other. János Kalmars Samsara ( 1990) adopts the same solution, while in another piece. Revaluations ( 1993) several pieces are placed loosely side by side, the layout giving the work its power and playfulness. Tamás Asszonyi also made a many-part medal: he decomposed the medal into pieces in such a way that it could be reassembled. These solutions enrich the art just as much as do the unique ideas which produce paraphrases, as it were, of the theme (Enikő Szöllőssy: Hand medals, series, 1994; György Kiss: Biennial Com/ting I, 1995; László Szlávics jr.: Ritual Proto-money, series, 1996-97; Gábor Gáli: Limericks of the Series Barbaric Etudes, series, 1998). The mentioned pieces belong to the more daring set of works created in the past ten years and which, in the view of several analysts, trespassed the all too wide boundaries of the medal. In my opinion, those of the new ideas and procedures can be justified which do more than just surprise with their material or form, and those which have the potential of further use, unfolding, development. It still needs time to decide how the raised ideas and proposed techniques could satisfy these expectations. To this trend belong, for instance, József Palotás' Windy Landscapes series ( 1993) where the cast iron is coupled with wild-hog hair, Endre András Tornay's wooden Mr. and Mrs. Tuba's Evening Walks (1996), and Edit Rácz.'s Mandata series (1997) made of glass and bronze. The unusual themes attract new materials and more and more abstract forms. Tamás E. Soltra (Childhood, series, 1995) and László Szunyogh (Prodigal, series variant, 2001) only used the traditional bronze - one presenting naturalistic form, the other modelling reduced forms - but both abandoned the circular shape of the medal, drawing close to small scultprue. The period of Hungarian medallic art between 1976 and 2000 is rich and varied, and despite its lowebbs, it is internationally acclaimed. Though there was little hope of a new generation in this branch of art for years, the entry of a large number of young medallists in recent exhibitions anticipates that on the basis of the material - as tradition - presented in this volume a real upswing will come in medallic art in the next years. Viktória L. Kovásznai