Bálint Szombathy
Bálint Szombathy (1950, Novi Sad, Serbia) is one of the key names of the former Yugoslav as well as Hungarian art. His practice included a wide range of artistic activities, from visual poetry, processual art, land art and performance, to conceptual art. In 1969, he and Slavko Matković founded the Bosch + Bosch group, which represented a platform of neo-avantgarde artists from Vojvodina, Serbia, and Hungary. The group played a significant role in connecting with related movements and artists across Europe, particularly with its access to relevant information from the Western world. Szombathy has been working with photography since the late 1960s. Using photography, he mostly documented his performances and conceptual projects. He worked as the graphic editor of the Magyar Szó newspaper (1974–1985), the Uj Symposion magazine (1985–1989) and the Családi Kör newspaper (1993–1999).
Balint Szombathy participated in numerous renowned international exhibitions in Europe, the USA and Canada i.e. »Body and the East«, »After the Wall«, »Non-Aligned Modernity”, and likewise exhibited in various leading museums across Europe like the Ludwig Museum in Budapest; the Gallery of Modern Art in Ljubljana; the Moderna Museet in Stockholm; Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin and others. He received a plethora of awards for his work: Lajos Kassák Award, Paris (1989); Mihály Munkácsy Prize, Budapest (2008); the Vladislav Ribnikar Award, Belgrade (2015.); the Grand Cross, a Hungarian Order of Merit, Budapest (2018).
