Ilka Gedő (26 May 1921 — 19 June 1985) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist.Her work survives decades of persecution and repression, first by the semi-fascist regime of the 1930’s and 1940’s and then, after a brief interval of relative freedom between 1945 and 1949, by the communist regime of the 1950’s to 1989. In the first stage of her career that came to an end in 1949 she created a huge number of drawings that can be divided into various series. From 1964 on, she resumed her artistic activities creating oil paintings.
During the war, she made a living by doing ceramics, but she never stopped creating her series of graphics. From the late 30’s till the early 40’s Ilka Gedő was taught by three artists of Jewish origin who were killed by the Nazis at the end of the war.
Up until the early 1940s, together with other young artists, Ilka Gedő also visited the studio of Gyula Pap ( 1899-1982) who was a former disciple of Johannes Itten and a teacher of Bauhaus.
Ilka Gedő created self-portraits which, through their sheer honesty and self-exploration, claim the viewer’s attention.
A well-known Hungarian art historian, László Beke in 1980 evaluates her art: “I believe it is utterly pointless to draw any parallels between your art and the «contemporary» trends, because your art could have been born any time between 1860 and 2000. It draws its inspirations not from the «outside», but from the «inside», and its coherence and authenticity are derived from the relationship this art has with its creator—and this cannot possibly escape the attention of any of the viewers of these works.”
Ilka Gedő’s Double Isolation
After a period of freedom between 1945 and 1948, the onset of Communist dictatorship influenced Ilka Gedő’s life adversely, being one of the reasons why she gave up artistic activities for sixteen years. From the beginning of the 60’s, the Party’s grip on society loosened somewhat, but Ilka Gedő’s isolation continued. Ilka Gedő’s situation was made even worse by the fact that a lot of her friends, in contrast to her, made their compromises with the regime, while the talented artists of the younger generation simply opted out of the official arts-policy system and found recognition in the West. In the last two years of the war and in the four-year period of freedom after 1945, Ilka Gedő created a huge number of drawings whose existence had been forgotten by the time she, finally, had her first public exhibition 1980 at the age of fifty-nine. In the period lasting from 1965 to 1985 the artist created about 140 paintings but her work was largely underrecognised.
Exhibitions
One-woman exhibitions in Hungary:
Studio Exhibition (1965)
King St. Stephen's Museum, Székesfehérvár, Hungary (1980)
The King St. Stephen's Museum, Székesfehérvár, Hungary
The Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
The British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings
The Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Department of Prints and Drawings
The Jewish Museum, New York
The Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings), Berlin
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
The Albertina, Vienna
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Department of Modern and Contemporary Art), New York
The Duke Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig
Literature
Szabó, Júlia (ed.): Gedő Ilka rajzai és festményei (The Drawings and Paintings of Ilka Gedő), exhibition catalogue, Székesfehérvár, Szent István Király Múzeum, 1980, HU ISBN 963-7131-20-5 ISSN 0586-3759
Ury, Ibolya (ed.): Gedő Ilka, kiállításkatalógus (Ilka Gedő, Exhibition Catalogue), Budapest, a Műcsarnok Dorottya utcai Kiállítóterme, 1982, ISBN 963-01-4173-6
Mucsi, András (ed.): Gedő Ilka (1921–1985) festőművész kiállítása (The Exhibition of Ilka Gedő /1921-1985/), exhibition catalogue, Szentendre, Művésztelepi Galéria, 1985, 963-01-6605-4 ISSN 0209-4940
Néray, Katalin (ed.): Gedő Ilka (1921–1985), exhibition catalogue, Budapest, Palace of Exhibitions, 1987, ISBN 963-7162-86-0
Gálig, Zoltán (ed): Gedő Ilka festőművész rajzai a Szombathelyi Képtárban (Works on Paper by Ilka Gedő at the Municipal Art Museum of Szombathely), Szombathely, Városi Képtár, 1989, ISBN 963-01-9554-2 ISSN 0239-1910
Semjén, Anita (ed): Áldozatok és gyilkosok / Gedő Ilka gettó-rajzai és Román György háborús bűnösök népbírósági tárgyalásain készült rajzai (Victims and Perpetrators / Ilka Gedő's Ghetto Drawings and György Román's Drawings of the People's Court War Criminals Trials), exhibition catalogue, Budapest, 1995, Hungarian Jewish Museum and Jerusalem, 1996, Yad Vashem Art Museum
Kashey, Elizabeth (ed): Ilka Gedő (1921–1985) Drawings and Pastels, exhibition catalogue, New York, Shepherd Gallery, 21 East 84th Street, 1995, OCLC 313759285
Kolozsváry, Marianna (ed.): Gedő Ilka festőművész kiállítása (Exhibition of Ilka Gedő), exhibition catalogue, Budapest, Hungarian National Gallery, 2004, ISSN 0231-2387
György, Péter–Pataki, Gábor, Szabó, Júlia, Mészáros, F. István: Gedő Ilka művészete (1921–1985) – The Art of Ilka Gedő (1921–1985), Budapest, Új Művészet, 1997, ISBN 963-7792-21-X ISSN 1219-4913
Hajdu, István–Bíró, Dávid: Gedő Ilka művészete, oeuvre katalógus és dokumentumok, Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 2003, ISBN 963-9500-13-5
István Hajdu–Dávid Bíró: The Art of Ilka Gedő, Oeuvre Catalogue and Documents, Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 2003, ISBN 963-9500-14-3
