Zsuzsa Szenes (1931-2001) was one of the most significant artist of the Hungarian textile art. Between 1951 and 1955 she studied at the Applied Art Academy and graduated from th etextile department. She began her carreer by designing pressed textiles and curtains.

In the first half of the 1960'ies she made many drawings of the part-dream - part-reality of the everyday life. Later she made larger drawings and the braiding of her lines followed the complicated way of dreams and imagination with more and more freedom. Finally she found her special technique, that is: placing unspinned wool all around the canvass. This was some kind of textile-drawing enriched by colours and mirrors. Several of her large works were ornamenting public buildings such as Hotel Intercontinental and Bajkál Tea-House.

In the middle of the 1970'ies she first of all made objects or manipulated well known objects by using her textile tools.

Just like the bravest individuals of the textile movement - Gábor Attalai, Aranka Hübner, Gizi Solti, Mariann Szabó, Margit Szilvitzky and others - she stepped far beyond the limits of the textile art. Her special merit is that she introduced the conceptual thinking in the traditional textile art in Hungary.

In the last decade of her carreer she dealt almost exclusively with graphics. Through the use of letters, ornamentations, colours and different papers she created a special world of imagination and emotions.

In 1974 she was rewarded with the Munkácsy-prize. Her inaugural exhibition was arranged in the Budapest Galery Exhibition House in 1994.

This is the first occasion for us to represent her lefework spanning from her early graphics through the textile works to the last paper compositions. The material has been selected from museologic and private collections, as well as from the artist's heritage.

Márta Kovalovszky
Art historian