The collection of almost 5.000 items was established in the 1920s by Sámuel Lusztig who began purchasing contemporary works of art of his age. Unfortunately, the works purchased in those years were lost during World War II. After the Holocaust, Lusztig began rebuilding the collection, a process in which his nephew, Péter Antal, later became involved. In the beginning Péter Antal had carried on collecting in the spirit of his grandfather, but at the age of 17 he went his own way and mainly sought for the representatives of the Hungarian progressive art. He mainly purchased the contemporary works of art from the artist’s studios. The development of the 20th century Hungarian visual art can be traced in the imposing Antal‒Lusztig Collection. Recently, considering that his collection fully covers Hungarian art, Antal is increasingly turning its attention to the acquisition of works signed by internationally renowned artists. Currently, the collection has almost 5.000 works, being the largest private art collection in Hungary. As a sign of respect and gratitude to his grandfather, Antal named the collection "Antal-Lusztig Collection".

The exhibition “Monochrome Stories. The Antal-Lusztig Collection. Debrecen” included fine monochrome works. "Even if it seems to be just a simple color, it's more than that. Now the monochrome works give the character of my international collection", points out Peter Antal. “I tried to gather works of artists that I not only sympathized with, but considered truly exceptional. I have always admired the artists who, contrary to the expectations of the time, created against the trends ", is Péter Antal's perspective on the way he collected art. About the arrival in Cluj of a selection of works from his collection, he says “Every collector has a dose of selfishness, and I have it, but my selfishness is manifested by the desire to show the public the works in my collection. Although this involves a lot of risk, I always offer my collected works for display. ”

This ambitious exhibition approach brought, for the first time in Cluj, works signed by artists Marina Abramović, Maurer Dóra, Erdélyi Gábor, Feledy Gyula Zoltán, François Fiedler, Jakob Gasteiger, Gál András, Johannes Geccelli, Alex Gern, Johannes Girardoni, Raimund Girke, Marcia Hafif, Simon Hantaï, Herbert Hamak, Jus Juchmans, Zebedee Jones, Hartwig Kompa, Sol LeWitt, Jason Martin, Moholy - Nagy László, Vera Molnar, Paola Neumann, Hermann Nitsch, Frank Piasta, Arnulf Rainer, Dirk Rathke, Judit Reigl, Gerhard Richter, Rene Rietmeyer, Dieter Roth, Yuko Sakurai, Robert Schaberl, Seres László, Swierkiewicz Róbert, Szabó Dezső, Peter Tollens, Dieter Villinger, Herman de Vries, Herbert Zangs & Károlyi Zsigmond.

“(...) The artworks featured in Monochrome Stories are all conceptually rooted in a minimalist mindset, in the broadest sens of the stylistic term”, pointed out the art critic Bogdan Iacob. The exhibition illustrates “how two important and strangely related, symbolic realms can be conjured up by monochromy and simplicity (…)”, said the art critic.

You can virtually visit the exhibition here -

http://media.upspace.ro/Centrul_de_interes/Monochromestories/index.htm

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