János Major was a Hungarian graphic artist, painter and photographer from Budapest. He was born as Janos Neufeld to a Jewish family in Budapest. From 1947 to 1950, he attended a private school, and later, a High School for Fine and Applied Arts. In 1950, his mother married Bela Major, which made he and his sister adopt the name Major as their last name. Upon high school graduation, he got accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest where he studied graphic reproduction: etching, lithography, and woodcut under Karoly Koffan. His diploma work in 1959 were etchings of women workers at an electronics factory.
Career
Major's work often appeared in group exhibitions. He made gravestone photographs from the beginning of the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, he destroyed a significant part of his work. In the 1960s, he experimented with mezzotint, line engraving, aquatint, acids on steel plates and imprints into vernis mou. His epic etching In Memoriam of Moric Scharf, a reference to a famous Hungarian blood libel case, to the Holocaust, and to Renate Muller. In the late 1960s, he began to photograph tombstones, producing hundreds of black and white prints. Some photos informed his drawings while others inspired conceptual work. He produced art that was grotesque, ironic, absurd sexual engagements blend with Jewish and political motifs. In the 1980s, he became interested in perspective illusion. He has dealt with the subconscious and taboo. He staged a one-man protest on October 18, 1969 at Victor Vasarely's retrospective exhibition at the Mücsarnok gallery in Budapest. Janos walked around the exhibit with a one-inch sign under his lapel and showing it only to friends: Vasarely Go Home. In 1976, Major destroyed a significant portion of his work. The same year, he became associated with the Budapest History Museum as an archaeological draftsman and did not resume his own work for a decade. His late work consists of tombstone photography, drawings, and comics. These drawings make use of a certain perspective representation he called ‘coincidences,’ resulting in absurd misperception.
Exhibitions
Source: Veri, Daniel. March 2013. Leading the Dead – The World of Major Janos, MTVA Press..
Group
Source: Veri, Daniel. March 2013. Leading the Dead – The World of Major Janos, MTVA Press..
Awards
Source: Veri, Daniel. March 2013. Leading the Dead – The World of Major Janos, MTVA Press..
