On the 25th occasion of the biennale, the organisers invited 25 young and important European gallery owners as guests of honour. Among them were 23 French owners, one from Spain and one from Hungary ? Kálmán Makláry.
The 25 galleries were invited to each show one work on the balcony of the Grand Palais in Paris. Makláry chose to show Judit Reigl?s painting Explosion from 1956.
Reigl moved to France in 1950. Her first exhibition in France was organised with the assistance of the surrealist André Breton. Soon after, she departed from surrealism and started working with other mediums.
Many of her works are included in French private and public collections, including many works at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and a couple at the Tate Gallery in London. Her first exhibition in Hungary was at the Mucsarnok in 2005.
"She established a purely gesture-based painting, which in essence meant that there were no pre-planned moves, execution was fast and the artist worked in a ecstatic state," Makláry says of Reigl.
The 25 guests of honour will each get a stand at the next Biennale des Antiquaires in two years.
