Dóra Keresztes

Dóra Keresztes (born October 3, 1953, Budapest) Hungarian painter, printmaker, illustrator, graphic designer and animated film director.

The native form of this personal name is Keresztes Dóra. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
János Kass opens the art exhibition of Dóra Keresztes at the Dorottya Gallery in Budapest

Biography

She graduated from the Hungarian University of Arts And Design in Budapest as pupil of István Balogh, György Haiman, János Kass and Ernő Rubik. She started her career with book designs and illustrations mainly for children and contemporary Hungarian literature. Later on the film and theater posters came to the center of her interest and she was art director and designer of the „Muses” Cultural Magazine in Budapest. Beside her design activity she is an independent fine artist, stage designer and director of animated films. Her works have been shown in exhibitions, biennials and film festivals both in Hungary and abroad. Vice president of the Society of Hungarian Illustrators, film director in PannóniaFilm Studio, co-founder of Hungarian Poster Society. She works as a freelance designer in her own design studio.

Her art

Determining the coordinates of the creation of Dora Keresztes is especially helped by the artistic and thematic and technical constants of her works. There is a number of them and since the fundamental ones migrate between the individual fields of activity parallelly attended to by Keresztes, they mutually transform and the generic plasticity and imagination of these fields. The origin of her linocuts were probably the woodcuts of the middle age, the world of "Biblia Pauperum" ("Paupers' Bible") which became so popular by the designers and fine artists of expressionist movement in the beginning of the 20th century too. Also her works were deeply influenced by the simplicity of East European folk art. She made study in Hungarian and Rumenian (Transilvanian) villages observing the decoration of small old churches. She does preach that traditional forms and handmade constructions could exist further and they can be part of the contemporary art and modern design as well. She likes to travel between the past and the present and in her pictures the world keeps her totality as it was in the time of the ancient mythologies and as it is in the tales and fables. We can observe her attraction towards the grotesque and surrealism too. Especially in her colorful animated films we can feel the presence of the dreams, subconscious and imagination. In some of her design works – especially in the case of posters and logos appears the influence of the emblematic power of folk art what is mixed with the more rigorous geometrical approach. She likes using the different forms of symmetry too and she plays very often with the rhythm of positive and negative forms. The world of Dora Keresztes is rather unusual in the digital field of the contemporary design life, but she says that the fundament of the future is in the past. She knows the responsibility of the designer for the local cultures, and she does work to keep them, she works for a healthy coexistence.

Exhibitions
  • 1985 Budapest, Vigadó Gallery
  • 2000 Szeged, Kass Gallery
  • 2001 Teheran, Artist Gallery
  • 2005 Budapest, Dorottya Gallery
  • 2005 Budapest, Hungarian National Theatre
  • 2009 Budapest, Barabas Villa
  • 2012 Moscow, State Children's Library
  • 2012 Győr, Esterhazy Palace
  • 2014 Hiroshima, Aster Plaza

Animated films
  • 1979 – Moon Film (Holdasfilm) (with István Orosz)
  • 1985 – Magic (Garabonciák) (with István Orosz)
  • 1989 – Golden Bird (Aranymadár)
  • 1996 – Faces (Arcok)
  • 2001 - Smiling Sad Willow Tree (Mosolygó szomorúfűz)
  • 2002 - De profundis
  • 2005 - One-Two-Three (Egyedem-begyedem)

Stage design

Awards
  • 1977-2001 Main Prizes of the Beautiful Hungarian Book Competition (nine times)
  • 1988 Award of the Biennial of Graphic Design, Brno
  • 1994 The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Award
  • 2000 Gold Medal of the Millennium Competition of Hungarian Art Academy
  • 2001 The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Award
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