The Galimberti გამოფენის კატალოგი

Press Kit

Unique Properties

The graphic world of the catalogue was inspired by the closely intertwined lives of the painting couple (Valéria Dénes & Sándor Galimberti) who died young in 1915. The use of individual ligatures in the typography subtly illustrates the strong human connection that made the work of this tragic couple a shared oeuvre.
The oeuvre is largely lost, which is why no such comprehensive catalogue has been produced until now. The graphic challenge was to present this fragmentary oeuvre in a dignified and monumental way.

Dimensions & Packaging

230 × 290mm, 372 pages, hardcover book, cloth covered, gold foil stamped, with dust jacket

Tags

book, catalogue, exhibition, editorial design, paintings, blue, gold, fine art,

Production Technology

The book was published in two separate volumes, in English and Hungarian. We chose a linen binding because both painters preferred this type of canvas, which has a finer weave. The cloth-bound covers are protected by a dust jacket that can be opened into a poster, the Hungarian edition featuring a painting by Dénes Valéria, the English edition by Sándor Galimberti. Only the name is stamped on the blue canvas with gold foil, so that this simplicity highlights the colourful and exciting details of the paintings on the dust jacket.

Design Challenge

To express the close relationship between the two painters, we searched for months for the perfect serif font, which has enough ligature. We couldn't find one, so I created our own set of ligatures for the catalogue, based on the Modelista font.

Research

Often, even contemporaries could not tell which of the two painters painted which painting. Today's scientific research, led by curator Gergely Barki, has sought to unravel the differences and to place the two painters in the Hungarian and international canon in the context of a lifetime exhibition. The result of this research is the catalogue, which presents even richer research material than the exhibition in the Hungarian National Gallery.

Inspiration

“These two people were like two tall, slender trees, growing up straight side by side, without bowing to each other, without depriving each other of sunlight.” (Jolán Simon)

Project Duration

THE GALIMBERTI. The Lives and Works of Sándor Galimberti (1883–1915) and Valéria Dénes (1877–1915) exhibition
10 October 2024 – 23 February 2025, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Operation Flow

We wanted to please visitors with a removable poster of the book. So that they could take home reproductions of the most important paintings at a larger scale than the book, in almost original aspect ratio.

Patents

graphic design © Timea Andorka, 2024
text © Gergely Barki, 2024
© Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, 2024

Image Credits

© Timea Andorka, 2025