Brave New World – Irony Cast in Metal

Brave New World – Irony Cast in Metal

Tamás Asszonyi’s retrospective exhibition

4 July – 11 October 2026

Szentendre Hall, Ferenczy Museum

Curator: Brigitta Muladi

Tamás Asszonyi (b. 1942) is a Munkácsy Award-winning sculptor, a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Art, a contemporary Hungarian artist with an individual voice who has revitalized the art of the medal. He has been working at Szentendre’s New Artist Colony since its foundation in 1969, and he is a proud citizen of the town who is deeply involved in its cultural life. His work is characterized by a humility towards such traditional materials as bronze and stone, classical modes of form-making, and a playful, intellectual irony with critical overtones.

In his works, the respect for traditional sculptural values and noble materials meets modern man’s dilemmas. The technical underpinnings of his works are flawless: the inner harmony radiated by his sculptures is the result of many years of studies and experience. His life’s work connects classical European sculptural thought with the contemporary reflective approach. He delves into momentous, profound questions without sacrificing the visual beauty and unity of the resulting piece. Whether it is a monumental public work or a small sculpture, each of his creations encapsulates a complex universe: they are mirrors that simultaneously reflect the experience of history and the contradictions of the world today—presented with a satirical serenity, sometimes with blunt humour.

The solo exhibition in the Szentendre Hall will feature sculptural sketches from his college days, his diploma piece and significant works of a career that has spanned decades, including the three-part medal series, Our Brave New World, which comprises Potable Water, Breathable Air and Consumable Culture. In this cycle, Asszonyi presents the fragmented reality of a dystopian future—or is it already the present? The medals are not self-contained wholes, but open compositions that are in tension with each other. The title’s reference to Huxley points to the gap between technological optimism and social control; the roughness of the sculpted surfaces and the distortion of classical forms by means of such technical instruments as a gas mask symbolize the ecological anxieties of modern man and the erosion of his liberties.

The Calvary of the Three Magi, a series of Christmas-themed medals, is another outstanding work, with the artist’s narrative talent and ironic frame of mind at their most memorable. Asszonyi transposes the biblical tradition into the political and wartime struggles of the present. In his vision, instead of travelling through idyllic lands, the Three Magi dare closed borders, election campaigns, bureaucratic red tape and combat zones to reach their goal. His approach brings into relief the cynical contradictions between Christian values and realpolitik, while reminding us of our own fallibility with a wry sense of humour.