Emö Simonyi (, ; born 2 July 1943) is a Hungarian-German painter and graphic artist.
Life and education Emö Simonyi was born on 2 July 1943 in Budapest, Hungary. She studied painting and graphic arts the Hungarian University of Fine Arts from 1961 to 1967 where she was a student of the painters Jenő Barcsay, György Kádár and György Konecsni. In 1967, she received her diploma in painting and graphic arts, after which she worked freelance as a graphic artist, designing posters, advertising graphics, and industrial pavilions. Since 1971, she has been living and working in Germany; in 1988 she received the promotional prize "Förderpreis" of the City of Munich and started her Evangelists series with its recurring themes of human-animal hybrids. In 1990, she participated in the Goethe-Institut's Indo-German Artist's Camp in Calcutta; in 1991, she received a one-year working grant "Studio aperto Italia" in San Giovanni d'Asso, Italy. From 1993 onwards, she taught "Anatomy for Artists" for 23 years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and from 1995 to 2022 taught at the Academy for Performing and Visual Arts in Marburg. Between 1998 and 2009, she was Guest professor at Pentiment in Hamburg and made first experiments with paper sculptures made from cardboard cubes that were stacked and painted.
Work
After initially focusing on black-and-white graphics and drawings, Simonyi's work shifted in the 1970s to a free and intense style of oil painting. Her paintings are responses to lived experiences or products of the imagination, mostly large-format, intensely colorful, narratively expressive, and often painted from unusual perspectives. After 1998 her paper sculptures developed into an important and characteristic part of her artistic practice. She addresses current social and environmental problems without breaking with classical painting traditions.
Solo exhibitions (selection) 1979 Art Center, Hongkong 1992 Vasarely-Museum, Budapest 1992 Ernst-Museum, Budapest with Thomas Lange 1998 City Art Hall Szombathely, Hungary 2000 Budapest Galéria, Budapest 2005 Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, Germany with Eckhard Froeschlin 2011 Templom Galéria, Eger, Hungary 2015 Kunsthaus Orplid, München; 2009, 2018 Orplid, Icking, Germany 2023 Galéria Lénia, Budapest 2024 Galerie13, Freising, Germany (1990, 93, 94, 97, 2004, 08, 12, 14, 19) 2026 Städtische Galerie Pfaffenhofen a. d. Ilm, Germany with Matthias Wurm
Group exhibitions (selection) 1988 "Corpo", Progetto Civitella D´Agliano, Italy 1996 "visions of a new morning", Hambacher Schloß • Zeitgenössische Kunst aus "Israel & Deutschland" 2002 "Paperworks", Marburger Kunstverein, Marburg, Germany 2012 "Selbstverschiebung", Kunstverein Villa Streccius, Landau/Pfalz, Germany 2017 "Faktor X", 3. Biennale der Künstler im Haus der Kunst, München. 2021 "Metaphysical Passage Through a Zebra", Ludwig Museum Budapest. 2025 "WOMENS QUOTA 02", Ludwig Museum Budapest.
Works in public collections Simonyi's work is in the collection of the Ludwig-Museum, Budapest; Hungarian National Gallery; István Dobó Castle Museum, Eger, Hungary; Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich; Academy of Arts, Berlin.
References
Further reading Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München (Ed.)(1988), Föderpreise 1988, ©1988 Kulturreferat München, Reiner Wiesemes (in German) Thiel, Heinz (1996). "Emö Simonyi" in visions of a new morning, An exhibition with twelve Israeli and twelve German artists, Edition Braus, Heidelberg, p.77-80, Keserü, Katalin (2000). "Migrant art" in Simonyi - Papierskulpturen · Papírszobrok · Paper sculptures · Plastiche in carta, Catalogue, Kunstverein Rosenheim - Budapest Galerie, pp.37-38, Konkoly, Gyula (2000). "An introduction into Emö Simonyi's art" in Simonyi - Papierskulpturen · Papírszobrok · Paper sculptures · Plastiche in carta, Catalogue, Kunstverein Rosenheim - Budapest Galerie, pp.40-44,
External links Website of Emö Simonyi Academy for Performing and Visual Arts in Marburg