JOSEF SIMONMÅLNINGAR 01-20.09.1972

Below are the English translations of the three original documents related to Josef Simon’s exhibition at Galerie S:t Petri in 1972.

Document 1
Josef Simon, a Hungarian artist residing in Stockholm, exhibits about twenty paintings at Galerie S:t Petri between 1–20 September 1972. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, and the Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Simon’s painting is deeply connected to his homeland. He is greatly interested in the music of the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály. Kodály collected old folk melodies, but his own music, says Josef Simon, compared to these old tunes, is much more advanced, and the tones become visual color impressions. Kodály abstracts nature; through these tones Simon creates images of landscapes, which he then seeks to reproduce on his canvases.

Document 2
"I want to free you from a dogmatic perception. What is love for me may be only friendship for you. Your personal experience of my art is what matters most. Only I myself can feel and understand the background of my art, but I hope that you will find something of yourself; that you, as closely as possible, will experience and understand; that together we may arrive at a subjective meaning."

Document 3
Press Viewing – Thursday, 31 August 1972 at 14:00 Galerie S:t Petri presents paintings by Josef Simon.

You are warmly invited to the press viewing on Thursday, 31 August 1972, at 14:00.

Sincerely,
Jean Sellem