Gulyás, Gyula: The Great M. M. (1992)

Gyula Gulyás (1944, Miskolc–2008, Budapest) began his career in the 1960s. His neo-constructivist works were organically connected to the emerging Hungarian neo-avant-garde, which took its starting point from Lajos Kassák’s constructivism. Gulyás simultaneously moved in the directions of Minimal Art and Conceptualism. Within this duality, he created his “notorious” politically charged paving-stone objects.

In the early 1980s, encouraged by his master, Tibor Vilt, he turned to portrait sculpture. In his mostly plaster heads (Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, Alfred Hitchcock, etc.) he sometimes hyperrealistically emphasized the characteristic attributes of the figures, while also employing the irony of Pop Art. From there, it was only a short step to the Monroe series, which served as the material for no fewer than five solo exhibitions. Gulyás invested all his professional experience and stylistic sensibility into approaching the myths and myth-making surrounding the American idol.

The Great M.M. is a particularly striking piece from Gulyás’s Monroe series, encapsulating the artistic intentions he sought to realize within it. The pictorial relief has a monochrome yellow background. Against this uniform field, a spatial composition recalling avant-garde constructivism unfolds, dominated by a large circle—a sun—accompanied by floating cloud-like forms in front of and above it. Over this quasi-natural scene, an unusual X motif is superimposed: one arm is a thin strip of mirror, the other a provocative image of the idol herself (drawn from Gulyás’s vast Monroe collection, several of which were incorporated into the series). Personal charm, physical perfection, and radiant eroticism elevate Monroe toward the world.