Literary Visions. Tibor Csernus's Book Illustrations in Paris (1965-1980)

We concentrate on the Paris years, when he produced cover designs and illustrations for a wide range of themes, from belles-lettres through crime fiction and fantasy to sci-fi. This kind of applied graphics earned him more than a livelihood: the years of cooperation with such prestigious publishers as the famous Gallimard also brought him professional recognition.  What lends the material presented in Tihany now a particular interest and value is that in addition to the small oil or ink paintings and prints that bear testimony to Csernus’s vivid imagination and visionary powers, those experiments and discoveries are also on view that were to fuel the development of his distinct figurative style.

With an oeuvre that spans fifty years, Tibor Csernus is a key figure not only of Hungarian art but of the international history of painting as well. Even in Hungary, as a young artist, he was the nucleus of an unmistakable school, while the painterly universe he created in Paris was singular in both the European and the American scene. Tibor Csernus lived and worked in Paris from 1964 until his death in 2007. The exhibits are part of the contents of his studio, an estate that became the property of the Kovács Gábor Art Foundation in 2009.