Szilasi Ágota, H.: Víz - fény-szín-tér. Stílusvariációk egy technikára. Egri Országos Akvarell Biennálé 1968-2004 a Dobó István Vármúzeum kortárs akvarell gyűjteménye (Eger, 2006)

to record what has been going on over the years, purchases have been made of works featured at the biennials which now form part of the István Dobó Castle Museum's art col lection.

„Over the last few years the watercolour has become the poor relation of the visual arts. We have now reached the crossroads. Either we can continue to remain satisfied with our general amateurishness and the standards of the Képcsarnok, or we can decide to take part in the creation of a new art. How can we do this? This is still to be decided, as is the question as to whether watercolourists will get sufficient support. This year's exhibition, which is the first ever Eger Watercolour Exhibition, to be held subsequently every two years, gives a practical opportunity for us the viewers to assess the exhibited work, and for the artists to analyse what they have done and what they are capable of doing in future. "

It was with this cal I for change that the art historian Lajos Németh opened the very first of the biennials in 1968. Perhaps he would feel it necessary today to stand up and acknowledge how this watercolourists' forum has developed into a major event at which the work of the most significant contemporary artists is represented. In saying this, however, the organizers' task has never been easy. They have had to contend with a host of peculiarly Hungarian problems resulting from a media, an economy, and hence cultural policies and art patronage, which were, and still continue to be, controlled by those in power in Budapest.

However, the exhibition is now organized by the István Dobó Castle Museum which has a significant collection of almost one hundred and seventy contemporary watercolours representing the medium in Hungary during the final quarter of the Twentieth Century and the beginning of this. The positive changes that have taken place, particularly since the beginning of the 1980s, have been due to new attitudes as to what is considered acceptable. „Emphasis on the geometric, lyrical abstract forms using motifs on a grand scale and meticulous detailing, reference to the truth with the aid of some complex stylistic manoeuvrings, painterly visions, symbolic and transcendental dreamworlds, individual mythologies and cool objectivity - it is perhaps from any one of these terms that one can begin to get to the heart of this collection. " (Tibor Wehner) The degree to which the standards of the biennials have improved can be seen in

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