On March 17, 2023 the exhibition entitled Travel of the graphic artist and animation film director Líviusz GYULAI (1937–2021) was opened at the Transylvanian Art Centre in Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfantu Gheorghe). The art show was jointly organized by the Cultural Centre of Covasna County and the Transylvanian Art Centre as a special side event of the 7th Grapchic Art Biennial of Szeklerland.
At the exhibition opening, art historian dr. Beáta Bordás, the host of the event welcomed the visitors, then opening remarks followed by Apor Ferencz S., curator of the 7th Graphic Art Biennial, Ágnes Képiró, art historian and Béla Szepessy graphic artist and curator of the exhibition.
Líviusz GYULAI was born in the winter of the year 1937 in Barót (Baraolt). The family repatriated to the town of Sopron in West Hungary in 1946. During his childhood readings he got to know the famous French illustrators Doré and Daumier. From 1952 he continued his studies at the Fine Arts High School in Budapesten, then after finishing it, he studied graphics at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts between 1956–1962. Among his masters are to be mentioned Sándor Ék, Géza Fónyi and János Kmetty. He actively participated in the revolution and war of independence of 1956 together with the students of the Faculty of Fine Arts. As a result he has been subjected to a number of retorts in the early years of his career. In Hungary he did not receive any official recognition for a long time, except for the Munkácsy Mihály Prize in 1973. However after the regime change he was overwhelmed with the most prestigious awards beginning with the distinction Merited Artist (1989) through the Kossuth Prize (2004) to the distinction Artist of the Nation (2014).
The life career of the artist is charactarized by the interaction between epochs, styles, techniques and genres. All this he fulfilled in each of his epochs with the highest craftsmanship, humility and with a rare vitality.
The exhibition organized in the Transylvanian Art Centre – also due to its summarizing nature – aims to flash as much as possible from the whole life work. This art show presents more than 180 graphic works, among others archaizing pen drawings, linocuts, lithographies and etchings. At the same time, in course of the exhibition visitors will be able to watch the animated films of Líviusz GYULAI, to which he made not only the figure, phase- and background drawings, but he wrote the screenplays and stories himself, as well, thus these are themselves works of independent value.
