1923 - 2020 Painter
Biography
Judit Reigl was born in 1923 in Kapuvár, Hungary. In 1941, she moved to Budapest and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts: "I took something from every student that interested me. I was skilled, but always sincere." The war interrupted her studies, but in June 1945, she resumed them, and in 1946, with a scholarship from the Hungarian Academy, she traveled to Italy, where the discovery of Renaissance and Baroque masters had a deep impact on her. In Ravenna, she met English sculptor and poet Betty Anderson (1911-2007), who later became her partner. Upon her return to Hungary in October 1948, the country was under the control of an authoritarian communist regime. Judit Reigl decided to escape and, after eight failed attempts, crossed the Iron Curtain on March 10, 1950. After a terrifying three-month journey, she arrived in Paris, where she was welcomed by the Hungarian community (Simon Hantaï, his wife, and Antal Biro), and settled in the La Ruche studio.
"My entire oeuvre forms a single series, from the age of three until today... In fact, I have done nothing but paint, or tried to paint, whenever I had the opportunity."
In 1954, André Breton discovered one of Judit Reigl’s paintings, Ils ont soif insatiable de l’infini. He wrote to her: “I believe you are capable of achieving great things,” and offered her a solo exhibition at the Galerie À l’Étoile Scellée. This encounter was a turning point in her life. Although Judit Reigl was never a member of the Surrealist group, she shared certain ideas with them and practiced a form of "completely psychological and physical" automatism. Literature, especially poetry and music, accompanied her throughout her career. She worked in series, and since 1951, she stopped using brushes, instead creating her own tools, such as a curtain rod with which she "wrote" her paintings.
The Éclatement, Centre de dominance, Guano, Écriture en masse, Expérience d’apesanteur, Homme, Drap, décodage, Déroulement, Art de la fugue, Volutes, Un Corps au pluriel, Entrée-Sortie, and Corps sans prix series were created between 1956 and 2008. If a figure unexpectedly appeared, Judit accepted it and started a new series, thus alternating between abstraction and anthropomorphic figuration before returning to abstraction. This method confused the art world, which could not categorize her, but it also sought to reconnect with her through works where her energy and strength appeared: “My whole body participates in the work, with my arms fully extended. I write with gestures in a given space of rhythm, pulses, and impulses.”
"The Dominance series (1958-59) is driven by centrifugal force, while Écriture en masse (1959-65) is driven by centripetal force. The series follow one another in waves, as if I were blowing air out, then in... Écriture en masse (1959-65) perhaps reminds me of the first time I saw the sun rise from the sea, in front of three giant purple rocks...”
In 1966, while working on the Écriture en masse series, a monumental torso appeared, which opened a new series, Homme, surprising critics and experts. She painted more than a hundred of these anthropomorphic figures, many of which had violent color schemes, but only a few of them were exhibited.
In the Déroulement (1973-85) and Art de la fugue (1980-82) series, which are connected to the music of Mozart and Bach, Judit Reigl offered a journey of color and music. She created these canvases while walking and listening to her favorite musicians, hanging them on the wall and using a paint-dipped glass wool-covered stick. Marcelin Pleynet highlighted the aesthetics and beauty of these works, which gained international recognition.
From 1988 onwards, the human figure reappeared in Judit Reigl’s works: in the Face à... and Un Corps au pluriel series, silhouettes pass through a threshold or float in space. Their identities are often neutral, seemingly suspended, far from the violent forces that shake the world: “The body: the most perfect tool and the most tragic obstacle. More than 15 billion years. Agglomeration, fusion, separation, attraction, repulsion, growth, decline, transformation, mutation, explosion, implosion, dissolution. Desire, suffering, death, new beginning.”
After exhibiting in 1956 at the Galerie Drouin with Georges Mathieu, Simon Hantaï, and Jean Degottex, Judit Reigl's work was supported by Jean Fournier at the Galerie Kléber from 1956 to 1962. From 1972 to 1976, she exhibited at the Galerie Rencontres, led by her partner Betty Anderson. Afterward, until 1982, she was supported by the Galerie Yvon Lambert, and then by Catherine Thieck from Galerie de France.
After Judit Reigl’s death on August 6, 2020, the Judit Reigl Foundation took on the task of creating the catalogue raisonné of her work and promoting her creations, which are now represented by Kamel Mennour. Kálmán Makláry, the gallerist, has played a significant role in the rediscovery of Judit Reigl and in the expansion of her exhibition presence over the past decade.
2024
- Judit Reigl: L'envol. Drawings and Paintings (1954-2012) – Solo Exhibition
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen, France - SPACEMAKING – Finding the Space – Group Exhibition
Kepes Institute, Eger, Hungary - They Dreamt a World for Themselves – Hungarian Artists in the History of 100 Years of Surrealism – Group Exhibition
Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary - Le Mur Sans Fin – Group Exhibition
New Galerie, Paris, France - Surréalisme – Group Exhibition
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France - Only We Can De-Rubble the World – Group Exhibition
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany - Glimpse of Light – Group Exhibition
Mennour, Paris, France - Different Persons - Art from Vunu Gallery and Everybody Needs Art Collections – Group Exhibition
Kunsthalle Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia - Imre Pan: A European Artistic and Publishing History in Paris in the 1960s – Group Exhibition
Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Romainville, France - The Choice of Painting: Another History of Abstraction, 1962-1989 – Group Exhibition
Musée de Tessé, Le Mans, France - The Image of Color, the Mystery of the Image – Group Exhibition
MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Hungary - Images Like Energy Machines – Group Exhibition
Kunsthalle in Emden, Emden, Germany - Új Kezdet. Masterpieces from 25 New Beginning Artists – Group Exhibition
Hungarian Art & Business, Budapest, Hungary
2023
- Judit Reigl 100 | Judit Reigl and the Second School of Paris – Group Exhibition
Mucsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary - Judit Reigl: Panta rhei – Solo Exhibition
Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris, France - Judit Reigl: Appendix – Solo Exhibition
Longtermhandstand, Budapest, Hungary - Soaring -vol- Flight – Solo Exhibition
Kiscelli Museum – Municipal Picture Gallery, Budapest, Hungary - F.I.R.E - Flames in Readymade Entertainment – Group Exhibition
Longtermhandstand, Budapest, Hungary - Judit Reigl: Centers of Dominance – Solo Exhibition
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany - L’existence Est Ailleurs – Group Exhibition
Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris, France - Action, Gesture, Paint - Women Artists and Global Abstraction (1940-70) – Group Exhibition
Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France - Cobra 75: Freedom Without Borders – Group Exhibition
Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, Netherlands - Judit Reigl: Dance of Death – Solo Exhibition
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary - The Truthful Eye – Group Exhibition
Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne - MAC/Val, Vitry-sur-Seine, France - The “Four Apostles” in Rome 1947-48 – Group Exhibition
Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary - The Playing Field of Images – Group Exhibition
MOMŰ, Balatonfüred, Hungary - Folyékony Időszeletek – Group Exhibition
Művészetek Háza, Veszprém, Hungary - Surréalisme au Féminin? – Group Exhibition
Musée de Montmartre, Paris, France - Judit Reigl – Solo Exhibition
Mennour, Paris, France - Painting the Essential – Group Exhibition
West Bund Museum, Shanghai, China - Le corps de l'autre – Group Exhibition
Mennour, Paris, France - Frapper du pied – Group Exhibition
Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne - MAC/Val, Vitry-sur-Seine, France - Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70 – Group Exhibition
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom - Le Salon de Musique – Group Exhibition
Mennour, Paris, France
2022
- Focus on Collection – Group Exhibition
Les Abattoirs - Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, Toulouse, France - Ways of Freedom: Pollock, Rothko, Mitchell – Group Exhibition
Albertina Modern, Vienna, Austria - La Méditerranée & Forma – Group Exhibition
Forma, Paris, France - Paris et Nulle Part Ailleurs 24 - Foreign Artists in Paris, 1945-1972 – Group Exhibition
Musée de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, Paris, France - The Truthful Eye – Group Exhibition
Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne - MAC/Val, Vitry-sur-Seine, France - The Disappearing Figure: Art After Catastrophe – Group Exhibition
Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom - Endless Summer – Group Exhibition
Mennour, Paris, France - Folded-Unfolded: Abstract Painting by Hungarian Artists in the 1960s–1970s – Group Exhibition
Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea - At the Heart of Abstraction: Works from the Collection of the Fondation Gandur pour l'Art – Group Exhibition
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France - The Shape of Freedom: International Abstraction After 1945 – Group Exhibition
Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany - Judit Reigl: Works on Paper 1954-2019 – Solo Exhibition
Longtermhandstand, Budapest, Hungary - Surrealism Beyond Borders – Group Exhibition
Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom - Soudain dans la forêt profonde – Group Exhibition
Mennour, Paris, France - Judit Reigl: Je suis la Régle – Solo Exhibition
Mennour, Paris, France - Collective Gestures: The Impact of Experimental Performance at Oberlin in the 1970s – Group Exhibition
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH, United States - Highlights: Surrealist and Modern Masters – Group Exhibition
Oliver Malingue, London, United Kingdom - À Mains Nues – Group Exhibition
Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne - MAC/Val, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
2021
- Judit Reigl - Le Vertige de l’Infini – Solo Exhibition
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, France - Première Abstraction – Solo Exhibition
Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris, France - Judit Reigl: Le Déroulement d’une Vie – Solo Exhibition
Galerie Antoine Laurentin, Paris, France - Monochrome Stories – Group Exhibition
Centrul de Interes, Cluj-Napoca, Romania - Five Years – Group Exhibition
Oliver Malingue, London, United Kingdom - Back to Reality – Group Exhibition
Oliver Malingue, London, United Kingdom
2020
- Nude – Group Exhibition
Oliver Malingue, London, United Kingdom - In Memoriam Judit Reigl (1923-2020) – Solo Exhibition
Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary - Blue: Color of Infinity – Group Exhibition
Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary - The 60s and 70s Novelties of the Historical Collection – Group Exhibition
Les Abattoirs - Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, Toulouse, France - Scrivere Disegnando: When Language Seeks Its Other – Group Exhibition
Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
2019
- Micsoda Nők – Group Exhibition
Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary - Back to the 50s – Group Exhibition
Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary - Great Art. Mad Money. No Rules – Group Exhibition
Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary - Hungarian Surrealism – Group Exhibition
Ferenczy Museum, Szentendre, Hungary - Abstract or Not – Group Exhibition
Oliver Malingue, London, United Kingdom - Reigl Judit: Palimpsest – Solo Exhibition
YBL Budai Kreatív Ház, Budapest, Hungary - Persona Grata? – Group Exhibition
Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne - MAC/Val, Vitry-sur-Seine, France - Reinhard Ernst Collection: A First Look at the Ernst Collection – Group Exhibition
Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany
