Ilona Keserü

Ilona Keserü (born Pécs, Hungary, 29 November 1933) is a Hungarian painter, professor emerita, Kossuth Prize winner.

Life and career

Ilona Keserü was born in Pécs, Hungary. She studied at the Free School of Art (Pécs) between 1946 and 1950, then at the High School of Fine and Applied Art (Budapest) between 1950 and 1952. She was accepted to the Academy of Fine Art in 1952, where, after completing the painting and mural courses, she graduated in 1958. During the first three years at the college her professor had been László Bencze, followed by István Szőnyi. However, she considers Ferenc Martyn as her real master, who had been overseeing her professional development from as early as 1945.

Keserü was a member of the Iparterv Group and the Atelier Budapest.

From 1960 she worked for the Belles-lettres and the Ferenc Móra Publishing Houses as an illustrator. In 1962 she received a scholarship from the Italian government and followed the courses of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma for a year. There she had her first show at the Galleria Bars in 1963. She then returned to Hungary and besides painting, she dedicated herself to designing sets and costumes for performances at the National Theatre, the Katona József Theatre, the Opera House, and the Ódry Stage in Budapest, the Gergely Csíky Theatre in Kaposvár, the Katona József Theatre in Kecskemét and the Hungarian Theatre in Targu Mures (Romania). at the Das Offene Bild in Münster, Germany in 1992. In 2023 the Hungarian National Gallery held a retrospective exhibition entitled Ilona Keserü 90. Self-Powered Pictures. A Selection from the Graphic Oeuvre.

Her work is in the Hungarian National Gallery, the Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MNB Arts and Culture collection.