Endre Tot

Endre Tot (Endre TÓT) born in Sümeg, Hungary,1937 is a Hungarian artist who lives and works in Cologne, Germany.

Tot participated in the Fluxus movement and is well known for his Mail art projects, the use of xerox copies and usage of rubber stamps with clear conceptual text declarations. In some of them Tot declares: "We are glad if we are happy". In 1999 he shows "Who's Afraid of Nothing? Absent images" at Museum Ludwig, Cologne, a continuation of a project called "Nothing is not nothing".

He studied at the Mural Department of the Hungarian College of Arts and Crafts from 1959 till 1965. He started to make informel paintings, an absolute novelty in Hungary, in the early 60s followed shortly by collages and works executed in the spirit of Pop Art and Minimal Art. He became attached in the mid-60s to a leading but neglected Avant-Garde painter, Dezső Korniss who highly appreciated his pioneering informel ventures. In 1968 and 1969 he joined his young Neo-Avant-Garde colleagues named collectively the Iparterv Group of Artists at two scandalous exhibitions heavily criticised by officialdom. A retrospective of his early works was staged at the Budapest Kiscelli Museum in 1989, his early pencil and ink drawings were shown at Székesfehérvár’s King Stephen Museum in 2003, while a comprehensive exhibition of his early works entitled „Early Works – from painted to unpainted pictures” at the Szombathely Gallery in 2004 presented most of his important works executed before his „My Unpainted Canvasses” (1970). After the political turn of 1989-1990 many of his major works executed back in the 60s were acquired by important Hungarian museums.

In 1970-71 he broke radically with painting and has since been pre-occupied with Concept Art. „Tót may well have possessed the most phenomenal painter talent among artists living East of Amsterdam. And yet, he voluntarily relinquished painting for the sake of a truth that he had gradually recognised to be even more important than painting.” (Géza Perneczky, writing in Új Művészet, October, 2003) As a farewell to his painter period he prepared his artist’s book „My Unpainted Canvasses” (1970), a virtual presentation of his canvasses never actually accomplished. Also in the early 70s, he evolved some of his basic ideas like "Nothing/Zer0", "Rains and Gladnesses" that were to permeate his works in subsequent decades. The new media he employed in his art include telegrams, picture postcards, T-shirts, Xerox copies, typewriters, films, music, posters, graffiti, banners, actions, artist’s books, street newsreels. Critics recognised his early „Absent Works” published by Cologne-based DuMont Verlag ("Aktuelle Kunst in Ost-Europa", 1972) to be the very first conceptual works stemming from Eastern-Europe, works that were to be greatly enhanced in subsequent decades. Some other conceptual works of his were also published in Achille Bonito Oliva’s „Europe/America: The Different Avant-Garde” (Milan, 1976). „He entered the stage of mail art almost in the very first hour”, wrote J. M. Poison in his catalogue of 1971 entitled „Mail Art-Communication - A Distance-Concept”. His fellow mail art correspondents included his later friend Ben Vautier, John Armleder, George Brecht, Daniel Spoerri, Cosey Fanny Tutti, Genesis P-Orridge, Dieter Roth, Marina Abramovich, Ken Friedmann and his dog. His mail art was exhibited at the Paris Bi-Annual of 1972 together with art by such other mail art pioneers as Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, Richard Johnson, Ben Vautier, George Brecht. About his letters written with a zero code Pierre Restany, a friend of Yves Klein’s, wrote this in 1978: „In the immaterial zone of a concentrated (ZEROED) sensitivity Endre Tót appears to be the Yves Klein of mail art, a monochrome of postage.” His first museum exhibition was staged by the Israel Museum in 1975. Since Hungary had severed its diplomatic relations with Israel in 1967, Tót was forced to smuggle his works out of Hungary in an adventurous way. His conceptual works (e.g. his Rainproof-ideas) executed between 1970 and 1974 were exhibited there simultaneously with Alberto Giacometti’s statues. Art magazines in Germany, Italy, and France took note of the exhibition with the Jerusalem Post commenting: "This is not to say that Endre Tot is the same race with Giacometti, but he is a totally new and rewarding experience." In1974, the Swiss Howeg Verlag published his sheet of stamps called Zero-Post among the very first artist’s stamps of international mail art. At the invitation of John Armleder, his later friend who became world-famous for his Neo Geo movement, he spent half a year with the Ecart Gallery of Geneva, an institution also functioning as a mail art centre. It was during his stay in Geneva that he accomplished his first street action (TOTalJoys 1976) which was filmed and later issued on DVD by the Paris Bureau des Videos in 2005. His artist’s books made in Budapest in the 70s earned him quite a lot of international praise. He had first published them on a samizdat basis but they were later republished by Western-European Avant-Garde publishers. 1971: „My Unpainted Canvasses”, „The States of Zeros”, „Semmi sem semmi / Nothing ain't Nothing”, 1972: „Nothing”, „Incomplete Informations”, 1974: „Zero-Texts (1971-72)”, „Night Visit to the National Gallery” (Beau Geste Press, UK), „Zero-Post”, „Rainproof Ideas (1971-74)”, 1979: ”TÓTalJOYS”, 1981: ”Very Special Drawings”, 1990: „Evergreen Book”. In 1998, the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale bought several of his artist’s books. The library of the Paris Pompidou Centre acquired his Correspondence avec John Armleder (Ecart, Geneva, 1974) in 2010. His artist’s books were exhibited in many European, American and Canadian museums including the Pompidou Centre’s „Livres d'Artistes” exhibition of 1985. He was still a resident of Budapest when, in 1977, he exhibited with Galerie Bama, one of the best-known Paris galleries. His show was reviewed in L 'Express by Otto Hahn. Due to his international actions and mail art activities he counted in the West as one of the most notable Eastern-European artists, an appraisal hardly acknowledged in his native country. He was plucked from the isolation of his Óbuda apartment in the late 70s by an invitation coming from the Berlin Artist Program of DAAD. His applications for an exit permit had been refused by the authorities several times which created a political sensation in the Western press, a circumstance that eventually earned him a permit. After staying in Berlin for a year Tót opted for emigration. His Óbuda apartment was confiscated but his sibling had evacuated his works stored there in the nick of time. After being stored in various low-key places, they were eventually deposited with the Hungarian National Gallery in an orderly fashion. It was in West-Berlin that Tót came to realise the ideas that he had taken with him in his suitcase and in his mind from Budapest. Shortly after arriving, he placed the following inscription upon the Berlin Wall: „Ich würde mich freuen, wenn ich etwas auf die andere Seite der Mauer schreiben dürfte” (I should be glad if I were allowed to write something on the other side of this wall). He demonstrated his joys ("TÓTalJOYs") with posters in his hand or upon his back in the busiest spots of the metropolis. He even placed a flickering sentence speaking about his joy among the news items of a street newsreel atop a Kurfürstendamm building. In 1978 DAAD filmed and published in book form his street action named TOTalJOYS. He twice exhibited his works with Galerie René Block, an institution previously hosting such notables as Joseph Beuys, Richard Hamilton, Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell. The irony inherent in his actions and mail art definitely links him up with the fluxus movement in Germany. He was the sole Eastern-European protagonist of the itinerant exhibition organised by René Block entitled „Fluxus in Germany 1962-1992”.

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