Receipt of the Moholy-Nagy Award from MOME (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest) Rector (President) József Fülöp. Image courtesy of www.octogon.hu
In the news: Professor Dr. Oliver Botar receives Moholy-Nagy Award
One of the world’s best-known Moholy-Nagy researchers, art historian, curator, and School of Art Professor Dr. Oliver Botar received the Moholy-Nagy Award on October 27 from Rector József Fülöp at the MOME Campus.
MOME news release: mome.hu/en/news/world-renowned-art-historian-and-curator-oliver-botar-receives-the-moholy-nagy-award-2022
About the Moholy-Nagy Award
Since 2006, the award is presented each November to individuals whose outstanding creative activity is founded on the same values as those of the university and its eponym. Previous Moholy-Nagy laureates include world-famous Hungarian-born designer Stefan Lengyel, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube Ernő Rubik, one of the greatest product designers of our age Dieter Rahms, who became known worldwide as Braun’s lead designer, art historian KrisztinaPassuth, choreographer Pál Frenák, and network researcher Albert-László Barabási. In 2021, the university awarded the Moholy-Nagy Award to architect Zsófia Csomay and, posthumously, to architect Péter Reimholz, founders of the CET Budapest architect office and teachers of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.
In 2021, a new trophy was designed by Noémi Ferenczy Award-winning jeweller and teacher of MOME’s Design Institute Krisztián Ádám. In harmony with the growth and development of the university, it is intended to serve both as a material manifestation of Moholy-Nagy’s philosophy and a representation of the constant change we are experiencing, standing for values such as transparency, empathy, aesthetics, interdisciplinarity and innovation. The glass lens of the trophy symbolises the changing perspective that looking at a situation from different angles can yield. Experiencing diverse perspectives and crossing the lines between various scientific fields are key to finding answers to the challenges of our time.
The Moholy-Nagy Award, glass, diameter: 24 cm., Design: Krisztian Adam. Foto Richárd Tóth (Courtesy MOME, Budapest)
About Dr. Oliver Botar
Born in Toronto of Hungarian refugee parents, Dr. Botar has had an abiding interest in Hungarian and Hungarian-Canadian studies, and is past President of the Hungarian Studies Association of Canada. He serves on the Editorial Board of Hungarian Studies Review, a journal for which he has guest edited four special issues on Hungarian art, including an issue on the work of László Moholy-Nagy (with Hattula Moholy-Nagy). He has been active in the University of Manitoba-University of Szeged Partnership Program since its inception and has been non-resident Curator of Hungarian Art at the Salgo Trust for Education (New York) since 1996.
Botar has focused his research on Biocentrism and Modernism in the early-to-mid 20th-century, and on early-to-mid 20th century Central European Modernism (particularly the work of László Moholy-Nagy, the Bauhaus, and Hungarian Modernism) and is a long-standing member of the Historians of German, Scandinavian, and Central European Art. Within these research focuses, he has often concentrated on the origins of art in alternative (“new”) media, and he is widely considered to be one of the foremost scholars of the work of Moholy-Nagy. He has also worked in the history of Canadian Modernism, with special interests in Canadian Structurism, Hungarian-Canadian Modernists and the history of Settler art in Winnipeg/Treaty One Territory.
Botar has authored numerous books, articles, reviews and exhibition catalogues, working. His scholarship and curatorial work have been reviewed and cited extensively in the literature. He has lectured throughout North America, Europe and Japan at institutions such as the University of Alberta, Amherst College, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Concordia University, Garage (Moscow), the Getty Research Institute, the Guggenheim Museum, Harvard University, the Hochschule Bildende Kunst Hamburg, the University of Indiana (Bloomington), National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto), Ludwig Museum (Budapest), the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Université de Montréal, Muffathalle (Munich), the Art Gallery of Ontario, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Queens University, Saitama University, the Tate Modern, the University of Texas (Dallas), the University of Toronto, the University of Vienna, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and Yale University. He has presented regularly at the College Art Association, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, and Society for Literature, Science and Art. During the Pandemic he gave on-line lectures for the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Hungarian Cultural Centre (New York) and Moholy-Nagy University of the Arts, Budapest. Dr. Botar has organized, co-organized, chaired and co-chaired a good number of conference sessions, symposia and conferences.
Learn more about Dr. Oliver Botar
Congratulations, Oliver!
Dr. Botar receives the Moholy-Nagy Award from University Rector (President) József Fülöp.
Digital display monitor within MOME.