Cseh Gusztáv Exhibition

The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca, a public cultural institution operating under the authority of the Cluj County Council, together with the Transylvanian Art Center and the Clujul Comoară Association, invite the public to visit the Cseh Gusztáv exhibition, from August 15 to September 6, 2026. The opening will take place on Saturday, August 15, 2026, starting at 6:30 PM, in the temporary exhibition halls on the first floor of the Bánffy Palace. Speakers: Vákár István, vice-president of the Cluj County Council; Lucian Nastasă-Kovács, manager of the Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca; and the exhibition curators: Bordás Beáta, coordinator of the Transylvanian Art Center, and Portik Blénessy Ágota, museum curator.

Gusztáv Cseh (1934–1985) is an artist whose creation is inextricably linked to his hometown, Cluj. He pursued his studies at the "Ion Andreescu" Institute of Fine Arts in Cluj, graduating in 1960. From 1962, he served as a drawing teacher at the city’s Art High School. His exceptional talent for drawing manifested itself both in his caricatures and his book illustrations, but his name only became widely known with his first Cluj exhibition in 1965. Since then, he has been considered a defining figure of the Cluj school of graphics. Through his pen-and-ink drawings, executed with a single continuous line, he created an elegant and dramatic, yet simultaneously playful and cosmopolitan universe, making an entirely new contribution to Transylvanian art. The exhibition evokes the most important stages in the career of the graphic artist, who passed away at a young age while at the pinnacle of his creative powers. In addition to his early woodcuts (linocuts), the depictions of workers rendered in the spirit of socialist realism, and his unique graphic works created using varied techniques, the exhibition also highlights one of the characteristics, yet lesser-known directions of his oeuvre: the creation of ex-libris bookplates. The exhibition also features the etching series "Sixty Great Personalities" (Hatvan főember) and "Notable Houses" (Jeles házak) — the former pays tribute to prominent figures of Transylvania, while the latter honors the region's most important historical monuments.

The exhibition was first organized in 2025 by the Transylvanian Art Center at its headquarters in Sfântu Gheorghe, accompanied by a trilingual catalog that includes reproductions of the exhibited works and an introductory text authored by curator Bordás Beáta.

The exhibition will be open from August 16 to September 6, 2026, from Wednesday to Sunday inclusive (and from Monday to Sunday during the Hungarian Cultural Days), between 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM.