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

Like in the previous decades, the sensitivity to symbols remained decisive. Apparently, it is still the best method to convey deep-seated emotions and abstract, complex messages. This is the basis for one of the main lineaments of the period: the symbolic formulation of a phenomenon or thought, that is, the practice of sign creation. In the medallic crop of the period, there are many formally abstract pieces, but the inspiration to create them was the drive to create signs and not abstraction. Original solutions could also be found among traditional medals, mostly among the narrative ones, in this period. In Géza Szérí-Varga's pieces the artist's view of nature is conveyed by a surrealistic approach (In the Realm of Dwarves, series, 1993), while Judit Zsin presents her classic stories in minute detail, taking great delight in narration (St Francis, series, 1994; Casanova's Venice, series, 1995), thanks to the lostwax casting technique. Péter Szanyi also narrates his stories within the boundaries of naturalism (Stories from the Bible, series, 1992). Though their idiom of expression is widely different, their works are bound together by an intensive emotional approach to the theme, a feature that can be extended to the entire traditional Hungarian medallic art of the studied decade. A relatively clearly outlined range includes medals and their creators who worked out their individual styles based on the palpable use of some earlier method. Ágnes Németh, for example, uses space as the medium to express her profound messages in her mythic medals (Bulkheads at Night, series, 1989), Eva Varga deemed the naturalist approach as most appropriate to elaborate her individual tone (Tisza I-II, 1995). When the medal grew in importance in his lifework, Gyula Meszes Tóth reached back to the cubist precedents he had also used earlier to express the inner order, the heavy forms built from a core, and to achieve the more and more accentuated contours (Family IV, 1986; End of the Road, 1993). The methods of Csiky and his circle are discernible in the work of several artists. Csiky's spiritual legacy even hovers over the pieces made by Mária Lugossy and Tibor Budahelyi once only loosely connected to him. At first Lugossy extended her expressive arsenal with organic materials, before the human figure appeared among the abstract forms and organic bodies, and although the structure of the compositions is rational, their connotations are also shaped by emotions. (Her Pitrgatory series made in 1990 won the international FIDEM grand prix in 1994.) The impact of the master is also tangible in Budahelyi's work, especially in the series made after Csiky's death (1989). Preserving the basic geometrical forms and a rigorous plastic order, still producing the medals with machines, he created a highly idiosyncratic formal language. With their gilded surface and elongated bores, his first triangular plaques of the early 1990s have an erotic charge and express his attraction to nature as well as his profound feelings. It is again the emotive factor that is intensified in this lifework as well. Later, to enhance the lyricism of the works, he added colours to the formations functioning as plastic signs (Steel with Notes, series, 1995). (His Bartók series of 1998 won the international grand prize of FIDEM in 2000.) The real aftermath of neo-constructivism can be seen in the medals of the one-time pupils tied now tightly, now loosely to Csiky's views. István Ézsiás's compositions were characterized by a search for simplified, rational forms and spatial relations even in the late 1990s. His conscise expression was based on the use of geometric forms ( Heavy Metal Medal III, 1997). In elaborating his own style, László Horváth handled what he had learnt from the master more freely. He found the material and method best suited to convey his messages when he managed to use steel in a specific way. The dark, rough-surface forms of his medals are like formations produced by the forces of nature (Fate Traces, series, 1995). László Szlâvics jr. did not belong to the disciples, yet some pieces of his widely diverse output as to methods also rely on the achievements of the constructivist, neo-geometrical trend sharing their outlook. The application of steel is similar to Horváth's, but the role of the geometrical forms is more accented (Genesis, series, 1995). Some medallists including Erika Ligeti, Endre András Tornay and Edit Rácz, who earlier kept aloof of daring innovations, tried to retain as much as possible of the classic traditions of the art, but eventually they also joined the innovators to the extent determined by their temper and personality, thus they constitute a slacker range. A similar process can be retraced among artists who started on the border between naturalistic and abstract forms, for instance János Kalmár, and among those who returned to this effort temporarily. Typical of the latter is Gábor Gáti, thus the works of the mentioned artists also belong to this category. In Ligeti's oeuvre, this tendency can be traced to an earlier phase, as several innovative pieces were created among her more traditional lot. Though her forms became more and more abstract, her works were still circular around 1990 (Bird-Bird, series, 1989). The lost-wax casting method allowed her to materialize her principles: the forms projecting massively from the plane of the circle almost like sculptures in the round (Bambino, 1995) - and yet her works are medal-like. Tornay resumed his Voice of the Woods cycle in 1988, increasingly characterized by a surrealistic mood and the tension between the contrasted forms of nature and the organic forms. The architectonic details of an organic effect enhance the emphasis on the