"We have more and more foreign clients, and we noticed that our partners really started to sweat when we said 'Mű-Terem', that's the main reason why we decided to change the name," Virág explains.
The Mű-Terem burst onto the scene in 1998 by setting the record paid for a Hungarian painting at auction, selling a Rippl-Rónai for HUF 21 million. In the past ten years, the gallery has sold seven of the most ten expensive Hungarian artworks ever put on the block.
In addition to changing its name to the Judit Virág Gallery and Auction House, the gallery has put up a new home page, expanded its profile and dedicated its lower level to contemporary art.
Virág's entry, along with her business partner István Törő, onto the contemporary art scene is good and praiseworthy, but it should be noted that the two do not just jump into risky ventures. Asked whether the gallery plans to start contemporary art auctions parallel with the decision to create a space exclusively for contemporary art, Törő answers cautiously and recalls the failure of the first auctions of contemporary art organised by Hungary galleries in 2001 and 2002, a failure which gallery owners do not wish to repeat, for their own sakes as well as those of the artists they represent. Until auctions can be organised for works of living artists, Törő said, the gallery's earlier practice of placing a total of 20-30 contemporary works alongside older works at its three annual auctions will continue.
The Judit Virág Gallery has invited a number of contemporary artists to show their works as part of the Falk Art Forum, a festival organised by some 50 galleries on or around Falk Miksa Street in Budapest's District V. Among them are Imré Bak, Áron Gábor, Tamás Hencze, Tamás Konok, Lucá Korodi, Lolá Kovács, Dórá Maurer, István Nádler, Károly Klimó, Eszter Radák, Róbert Swierkiewicz and Ágnes Verebics.
The gallery plans to organise a number of special programmes in the future to complement its contemporary art activities. These include talks by the actor Róbert Alföldi and the fashion designer Kati Zoób.
A virtual internet gallery is also in the making. Set to open April 30, the gallery's first "exhibition" will be of The Eight, a group of Hungarian artists, including Károly Kernstok, Róbert Berény, Bertalan Pór, Lajos Tihanyi, Dezső Czigány, Béla Czóbel, Ödön Márffy and Dezső Orbán, who were influenced by Paul Cézanne, Fauvism and Art Nouveau.
Author: Gabriella Valaczkay
