Year and place of foundation: 1990, Győr
Founders: art historian Júlia N. Mészáros (Xántus János Museum) and the Hungarian-French artist Joseph Kádár, who lives in Paris.
1991–1993
The 1st and 2nd International Biennials were based on open applications. A professional jury selected the exhibited works and the prize-winning artists. There was no thematic or technical limitation; only their postal deliverability decided their size. The organisers created a black and white English-language catalogue, an invitation, a poster, a banner and a programme booklet in Hungarian and English.
For the 2nd Biennial, the main organiser directly invited ten renowned foreign artists, independently of the application, and organised for the first time solo and group exhibitions in the framework of the Biennial:
- Lajos Vajda and Endre Bálint memorial exhibitions (Lloyd, Széchenyi Cultural Centre);
- Pierre Székely (VárArt Gallery) with Zoltán Csete and his wife;
- Claude Sinte (Belgium) and Tamás Trombitás (Hungary) solo exhibitions (Xántus János Museum);
- Group C (Synagogue);
- TúlsóP/art (Napoleon House);
- A selection from the contemporary graphic art collection of the Oxygén Biennal Foundation (Győr Diocesan Treasury and Library).
The latter resulted from Júlia N. Mészáros’ several years of collecting efforts, who donated the exhibited works to the Municipal Museum of Art. (These included 14 works by Christo, a Bulgarian-born packaging artist, two works by Joseph Kadar, and the rest were donations by English, Finnish, German, Slovak, Polish, Japanese, Argentinian, etc. and Hungarian artists for the establishment of a future graphic arts museum in Győr).
The Biennial’s programme included performances, collaborative art events, lectures and creative activities (Győr Ballet, Győr Music Workshop – Győr Clarinet Ensemble, Percussionists of Győr, Grencsó Collective, OM Art Group from Poland, Kim Jung-Ah, a pianist from South Korea). The main programme in 1993 was the International Symposium of Contemporary Art.
1994
As the founding director of the Municipal Museum of Art decided, the organisation of the Biennial became a core function of the institution. From then on, only invited artists could participate, selected based on their internationally renowned work and by the director as the main organiser and the curators appointed by the director. In line with the new concept, the Biennial was renamed The Masters of Graphic Arts – International Drawing and Print Biennial.
1995–2005
From 1995, a series of international contemporary graphic symposiums started in Győr. As an integral part of the Biennial, the curators also organised national group exhibitions, including contemporary graphic art exhibitions from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the United States of America, Colombia, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Egypt, Thailand. The members of the Győr Graphic Workshop could also present their works in group exhibitions.
2007–2009
Since 2007, the Biennial has been thematically organised as Photography and Contemporary Printmaking (2007) and Space in Contemporary Printmaking (2009). In addition to the central international exhibition, solo exhibitions and two-day international symposia on printmaking after the opening ceremony have been given priority.
2022–2023
Following the decision of Zoltán Székely, Director of the Rómer Flóris Museum of Art and History, which was created from the merger of the Municipal Museum of Art and the Xántus János County Museum, the institution returned to the original concept of organising international biennials of drawing and graphic art. It is based on current artistic themes and focuses on recent developments. Participants are selected by the curator.
The theme of the 11th Biennial is Innovation in Contemporary Graphic Art.
The Biennale will consist of 5 exhibitions. The solo exhibitions of two Canadian artists, Derek Michael Besant and Alexandra Haeseker, Contemporary Hungarian Drawing and Contemporary Graphic Art in Romania, and the international exhibition.
It will take place from 8 October 2022 to 31 January 2023.
The curator is Júlia N. Mészáros, founder and previous chief organiser of the international biennials.
Contact person at the museum: Emese Pápai, art historian.
The previous Grand Prize winners of the Masters of Graphic Arts – International Biennials of Drawing and Graphic Arts:
- Rainer Junghanns, Germany
- Robert Jančovič, Slovakia
- Anna-Sobol Wejman, Poland
- Lojže Logar, Slovenia
- Constantin Jaxy, Germany
- Santiago Serrano, Spain
- Herendy Péter, Hungary
- Ingrid Ledent, Netherlands
- Chang-Soo Kim, South Korea
- Derek Michael Besant, Canada
Other prize-winning artists and some notable participants:
- Alicia Candiani, Cecilia Mandrile, Osvaldo Jalil (Argentina)
- Eva Schlegel, Horst Bartnig, Gunther Damisch (Austria)
- Berta Moltke, Wayne Crothers, Christopher Denton (Australia)
- Claude Sinte (Belgium)
- Zafet Zec (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
- Carlos Harle, Luiz Monforte (Brasil)
- Dmitry Oreshnikov, Ivan Milushev, Manya Vapstarova, Nadia Genova (Bulgaria)
- Caren Dugas, Walter Jule, Malgorzata Zurakowska (Canada)
- Jan Vičar, Jerzy Anderle (Czech Republic)
- Torben Heron (Denmark)
- Ante Kuduz, Croatia; Ulmas Viik, Eelma Sirje, Jüri Kass, Ülle Marks (Estonia)
- Annu Vertanen, Eeva-Liisa Isomaa, Jorma Hautala, Ilka Väätti (Finland)
- James Durand, Jean Matthiaut, Arnaud Bouchet, Joseph Kadar (France)
- Peter Oertwig, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Klaus Groh, Horst Sakulowski (Germany)
- Katy Antypa, Tonia Nicolaidou, Vicky Tsalamata (Greece)
- Szíj Kamilla, Koronczi Endre, Ágnes Haász, Szabados Árpád, Germán Fatime, Gallusz Gyöngyi, Chilf Mária, Szombathy Bálint (Hungary)
- Rangheidur Jónsdóttir (Iceland)?Hidayat (Indonesia)
- Andrei Katz (Israel)
- Pierluiggi Vannozzi, Ruggero Maggi, Piermario Ciani and Sandro Braccitta, Getulio Alviani (Italy)
- Choishi Nisikawa, Toshio Yoshizumi, Rioyi Ikeda, Masako Fuyita, Ryuta Endo, Masataka Kuroyanagi, (Japan)
- Kestutis Vasiliunas (Lithuania)
- Lida van der Vlist-Streng, Jan Hofman (Netherland)
- Patricia Villalobos Echeverría (Nicaragua)
- Nikolov Dimce, Toni Dimovski (North-Macedonia)
- Isabella Gustowska, Joanna Janowska-Augustin, Malgorzata Drohomirecka, Ryszard Otreba, Eva Zawadska (Poland)
- Ovidiu Petca, Eugen Dornescu (Romania)
- Lennox Dunbar (Scotland)
- Igor Benca, Stanislaw Buban, Vladimir Havrilla, Juraj Poliak (Slovakia)
- Danilo Jelcic, Zora Stančič (Slovenia)
- Young-Ha, I-Sun Choi,Sang-Gon Chung (South Korea)
- Teo Gonzales, Lidó Rico, Juan Sotomayor, Ima Montoya (Spain)
- Hans Björn, Katarzyna Hård, Modhír Ahmed, Mikhael Kihlman (Sweden)
- Nipan Oranniwesna, Suwan Methaphisit (Thailand)
- Pavel Makov (Ukraine)
- Jeff, D. Capobianco, Willie Marlow, Elfi Schuselka, Diana Samuels, Moire Marti Geoffrion, Margot Lovejoy, Joseph Nechvatal (USA)
- Trajce Blazevski, Branko Vujanovic, Anka Burić, Dragan Momirov (Yugoslavia)