MaNDAHungarian National Digital Archive

Op-art is a lesser-known artistic style, but it is one of the most unusual movements. It challenges not only the eye but also the mind to interpret it. Op-art is short for "optical art". The brilliance of the paintings lies in the fact that the painters usually create an optical illusion on the canvas, with a cavalcade of geometric shapes and colours that give the impression that the patterns are moving and floating.

„What about you, Mr. Fabian?! You decorate all your tasks with a tower!" Indeed, Gáspár Fábián is best known as a church builder, and as his autobiographical memoirs show, his dear teacher Virgil Nagy had already noticed his attraction in this direction during his university years. His most significant legacies are the Church of the Holy Cross on Üllői Road, the Holy Family in Szondi Street, St. Vincent de Paul on Haller Square, or the Ottokár Prohászka Memorial Church in Székesfehérvár. This week we are going to revive the oeuvre of Dr. Gáspár Fábián.

It is said that confessing your love and swearing feel the best in the mother tongue, but there are situations, when there would be a demand for them in a foreign language as well. When it comes to language learning, many people still think of memorising grammatical rules. Fortunately, nowadays you can easily make yourselves understood with the aid of your smart devices. What is more, the era when you can use a speech-to-speech translator such as the universal translator of the Star Trek universe is not far away either.

 Kossuth, Kisfaludy, Szent István; some people can recognize them from the names. It is not a secret that we are going to set sail in our actual composition. First for the Danube and then for farther seas. The elder days of glory went by – concerning the Hungarian navigation – but fortunately, there are plenty of relics that can be admired live as well. Now all aboard and let us set sail virtually!

George Stephenson would be amazed that his invention rather drifts than sweeps nowadays, just think about the magnetic levitation train Maglev. Inventing the steam engine caused a serious change, – not only in transport – because it created a new way of perceiving space and time, as the notions of distance and time of travelling changed at the same time. Stephenson’s locomotive was received with strong doubts. People thought its flame might put houses on fire, while others just thought that it was a machine pulled by the devil. Our current virtual exhibition brings back the nostalgia of famous railway carriages that ran in Hungary as well.