ÉVA²

A dialogue between two artists across a century: Éva Falus Balla (1913–1966), an animator, puppet artist, and painter from Budapest and Paris, and her granddaughter Eva Faloux, a contemporary painter. About Éva and Eva. A director of animated films and puppet artist grandmother, and her painter granddaughter. They never met yet were bound by exactly the same creative drive. Everything begins with a photograph: a self-portrait of Éva Falus Balla, in which the figure is duplicated. Decades later, this would become one of the starting points for works by her granddaughter, Eva Faloux, where the figures appear over and over again, as if the original image continued to live in a different form. Works birthed from self-examination occasionally recall distant family memories without becoming merely illustrations of them. The scope of this dialogue evolves from Éva Falus Balla's legacy, the drawings, photographs, puppets and puppet films, and all traces that are missing: the lost works, the repeated journeying between Budapest and Paris, the hardships of the Second World War and French resistance, and then the Rákosi era. On the other hand, the paintings and drawings of Eva Faloux bear the promise of a career that has yet to fully unfold. From one century to the next, between Budapest and Paris, from the art of animation to painting and drawing, the works enter into a dialogue with each other while also maintaining their own character. They explore memory, the transformations of figures and the transmission of a look. What remains, what has been lost, and what is still to be born comprise a single journey: the journey of creation. Falus Balla Éva (1913–1966) Graphic artist, painter, illustrator, puppet designer and animated film director 1929–1932 – Budapest: Graphic art course at the School of Graphic Art of the Hungarian Jewish Educational Association. Contemporary of Margit Anna. Her work first attracted attention in 1932 when it was published and exhibited. 1932–1939 – Paris: Painting studies at the atelier of André Lhote and Académie de la Grande Chaumière (with Vera Braun). She worked as a model as well as a fashioner designer with André de Dienes. Her fashion designs were published in the journal La Gamme (1936–1940). 1939–1945 – Paris: Illustrator at Denise René Gallery. She participated in the French resistance as a member of the FTP–MOI movement. In 1945 she joined a touring exhibition starting in Limoges that paid tribute to the French resistance. 1946–1957 – Budapest: Fashion and press graphic artist (1946–1947). Between 1948 and 1957, she was one of the pioneers of Hungarian puppet film and stop-motion animation. 1957–1966 – Paris: Continues her personal creative career. Eva Faloux (1992, Budapest) Painter, set painter and sculptor She graduated from the L'Ecole supérieure d'art d'Aix-en-Provence (ESAAix) in 2018. She continued her studies in Brussels at the Van der Kelen–Logelain School before studying historical monument sculpting. Her career is significant for the mutual enrichment deriving from constant switching between fine arts creativity and traditional craft skills; she has also been involved in the project to restore Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. This exhibition is her first opportunity to introduce her oil painting series signifying a new chapter in her artistic career. Read more Toggle Sculpture Painting Mixed media Photography Drawing