Endre Tót

Born in Sümeg in 1937, the Hungarian artist Endre Tót moves from painting to a conceptual practice using a variety of forms and media, from artist’s books to actions. After studying mural painting at the Hungarian College of Decorative Arts from 1959 to 1965, his work in the 1960s turns first toward informal painting, then toward collages and works marked by Pop art and Minimal art. In 1968 and 1969, he presents his work alongside the neo-avant-garde artists gathered in the Iparterv group. At the end of his painting period, he publishes My Unpainted Canvases (My Unpainted Canvases, 1970), an artist’s book featuring canvases he did not paint.

In the early 1970s, the concepts Nothing/Zer0, Rains and Gladnesses emerge; one source also refers to them as Nothingness, Rain and Joy. They structure a significant part of his work over the following decades. He develops this practice across a variety of media: telegrams, postcards, photocopies, films, posters and graffiti, as well as actions and artist’s books. His mail art works are presented at the Paris Biennale in 1972. Two years later, the Swiss publishing house Howeg publishes his series of stamps Zero-Post. His first museum exhibition is held in 1975 at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Invited by John Armleder, Tót spends six months at Geneva’s Ecart gallery, which operates as a centre for mail art. It is in Geneva that he stages his first street action, TOTalJoys, in 1976. After a one-year stay in West Berlin, he chooses to emigrate. The circulation and preservation of his publications are also documented: in 1998, the Bibliothèque nationale de France acquires a large number of his artist’s books, while his correspondence with Armleder, published in 1974 by Ecart in Geneva, has been held at the Bibliothèque Kandinsky of the Centre Pompidou since 2010.

Works recorded at auction

Lempertz · Lot 693

Untitled

Acrylic on canvas

Original catalogue wording

Ohne Titel
Acryl auf Leinwand

Auction date : 2019-11-30

Published result : 8060 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 3000

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Lempertz · Lot 689

I'm glad if I can make a painting by only 3 strokes with the brush

Acrylic on canvas

Original catalogue wording

I'm glad if I can make a painting by only 3 strokes with the brush
Acryl auf Leinwand

Auction date : 2018-06-02

Published result : 3720 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 3000

View the lot at the auction house ↗

References excluded from statistics: attributions and special lots

These references are shown separately because of their attribution or lot composition. Each record states the reason.

Lempertz · Lot 690

After all I have chosen the smaller one

Acrylic on canvas

Original catalogue wording

After all I have chosen the smaller one
Acryl auf Leinwand
Attribution ou qualification signalée dans le catalogue

Auction date : 2018-06-02

Attribution recorded in catalogue

Published result : 3720 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 3000

View the lot at the auction house ↗