The Hungarian Revolution.
Photos by Erich Lessing.
10/13/2006 – 02/05/2007
Attention: prolonged until 02/05/2007
Budapest 1956
The Hungarian national uprising began with a large demonstration on 23 October 1956 – about 300.000 people gathered in front of the Parliament in Budapest demanding freedom of speech, free elections and independence from the Soviet Union. By 15 November, riots broke out all over Hungary, thousands of civilians were killed and hundreds executed. After the revolution was crushed, began an exodus to Austria that had been liberated in 1955. The wave of sympathy for and solidarity with these refugees has not until today been forgotten in Austria.
The Exhibition
The photographs shown at the Leopold Museum are amongst the most poignant documentations of the tragic events of 1956. They will be shown in their entirety almost 50 years after they were first published. The exhibition includes an exclusive selection of vintage prints.
A supporting programme will accompany the exhibition.
Erich Lessing
Erich Lessing was born in 1923 to a middle-class Jewish family in Vienna. In 1939, he migrated to Palestine and in 1947 returned to Vienna, where he worked for the Associated Press as well as for numerous magazines. He has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1951. Reportages such as those on the Hungarian revolution brought him world acclaim. However, he gave up reportage photography in the 1970s, turning his attention to museum photography (for instance at the Louvre in Paris) and to other culture documentation projects. Lessing lives and works in Vienna.
For guided tour bookings contact:vermittlung@leopoldmuseum.org
+43.1.52570-1525
Catalogue
Budapest 1956. Die ungarische Revolution von Erich Lessing, Brandstätter Verlag 2006, 249 pages. A special edition can be bought at a reduced price of €29.90 (instead of €39.90) on the occasion of the exhibition.
This exhibition is part of Monat der Fotografie [Month of Photography].
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Copyright Erich Lessing
Copyright Erich Lessing
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