To mark the centenary of Judit Reigl's birth, Galerie Dina Vierny present the exhibition Judit Reigl, Panta rhei, from September 22 to November 18, 2023. It will feature a selection of some fifteen works covering a large part of the artist's creative period, from 1954 to 2007.
"Panta rhei" is Judit Reigl's mantra. It is a formula attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus. It literally means "all things flow", in the sense of "everything passes away". Another translation suggests "everything moves according to a certain rhythm", in reference to dance or the round. In her Déroulement series, which occupies a central place in her work, Reigl links the meanings of three titles she uses in three languages: "Folyamat" in Hungarian, meaning process / progression / flux, "déroulement" in French, referring to the unfolding roll of canvas, and "unfolding" in English, meaning to narrate, to disclose. For Reigl, this expression encapsulates the idea of a world in perpetual motion, which she has been trying to convey all her life through the natural sequence of her series.
In 2023, three museums are celebrating the centenary of Judit Reigl's birth by presenting an overview of eight decades of Reigl's enigmatic work: the Nationalgalerie in Berlin under the title "Center of Dominance", the Kiscell Museum ("Vol") and the Museum of Fine Arts ("Judit Reigl - Dance of Death"), both in Budapest. All these exhibitions reveal a life of ceaseless creation, the full extent of which is only now being recognized. As part of this international recognition of the Hungarian-born painter, Galerie Dina Vierny presents the exhibition Judit Reigl, Panta rhei, accompanied by a booklet featuring an essay by Janos Gat, curator of the exhibition and a great friend and specialist in the work of the artist who passed away in 2020.
"Big Bang and stardust; macrocosm and microcosm; creation and residue; singularity and multiplicity; divine and human - each of Reigl's paintings, just like the whole of his work and the big words used to describe them, all invoke the whole of creation: all extremes, all time and all at once. There are no rules other than those that govern the universe. The breadth and depth of the work are equally astonishing. The individual paintings, even stylistically, are almost impossible to define and classify. His paintings stretch into space; there is no gauge big enough to take their full measure"
(Extract from the essay "Unfolding Judit Reigl's series" by Janos Gat for the exhibition Judit Reigl, Panta rhei)
Curator : Janos Gat