Magyar Vadak Párizstól Nagybányáig (Hungarian National Gallery, 2006)

Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904-1914 HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY Buda Castle 21 March, 2006 - 30 July, 2006 The new temporary exhibition at the Hungarian National Gallery is an assessment of how the French fauves inspired Hungarian art and how this gave rise to a new Hungarian style. Fauvism is often regarded as the first significant 20,h­­century movement in the history of art in spite of the fact that the artists classed here did not particularly hold together, several of them even denying the sheer existence of such a movement. Around 1905, howev­er, a group of young artists under the leadership of Henri Matisse set out to revolutionize European paint­ing by the use of forceful colours, bold brushstrokes and a facile handling of line. Appearing at the Salon d'Automne of 1905, the artists that followed the new style, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and associates, were dubbed "les fauves" (wild beasts), and their art was later to be called fauvism. There were several Hungarians who espoused the new style, mostly those who sojourned in Paris at length, especially Robert Berény and Béla Czóbel, or became actual pupils of Matisse, such as Vilmos Perlrott Csaba and Géza Bornemisza. From 1905, Hungarian artists regularly participated at the Paris Salons, visited the galleries and collections there, and studied at the popular art schools together with their French colleagues. These young men, who spent the winter months in front of easels at Paris acade­mies, returned to the Nagybánya artists' colony, Nyergesújfalu or Budapest in the summer, and introduced a new painter­ly approach, which was soon to appear on the walls of Budapest galleries and even influenced several members of the older generation, including Béla Iványi Grünwald and István Csók. The Hungarian "fauves", though never establishing themselves as group under this name, in effect did make an intellec­tual community. The exhibition presents the work of those young artists who cre­ated a new culture of colour and form in Hungarian painting by following early 20,h-century trends, primarily fauvism. Seeking fresh colours and unusual har­monies, not only were they the first ones to step beyond the traditional naturalistic view of nature and art, they also opened the way to avant-garde tendencies. Selected from the material of various French, German, Swiss and Hungarian muse­ums and private collections in Europe and America, the almost 250 works exhibited include those by Róbert Berény, Géza Bornemisza, Dezső Czigány, Béla Czóbel, Sándor Galimberti, Béla Iványi Grünwald, Károly Kernstok, Ödön Márffy, József Nemes Lampérth, Vilmos Perl­­rott Csaba, József Rippl-Rónai, Lajos Tihanyi, Sán­ dor Ziffer. Apart from the Hungarian material, a small­er French collection can also be seen by the best-known of the French fauves, such as Henri Matisse, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Albert Marquet, and Maurice de Vlaminck. Loaning institutions are as follows: Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pom­pidou, Paris; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis; Musée d'Art Moderne de Troyes; Musée des Beaux- Arts de Chartres; Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Rochelle (deposit of Fonds national d'art contemporain); Staats­galerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung; Petit Palais, Musée d'Art Moderne, Geneva; Kunsthaus, Zürich. The curators of the exhibition are Krisztina Passuth, György Szűcs and Gergely Barki. A richly illustrated, scholarly catalogue of the exhibition is available in both Hungarian and English, edited by Krisztina Passuth and György Szűcs. Károly Kernstok: Nude Boy Leaning against a Tree / Fához támaszkodó fiúakt, c. 1909, Hungarian National Gallery Béla Czóbel: Sitting Boys / Ülő fiúk, c. 1907, Janus Pannonius Múzeum Henri Matisse: Collioure, Rue du Soleil / Collioure, a nap útja, 1905, Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, © Succession H. Matisse / HUNG ART 2006, Photo D.R. Béla Czóbel: On the Square / Téren, 1906, private collection Csaba Vilmos Perlrott: Self-portrait with a Statue / Önarckép szoborral, c, 1910, private collection Géza Bornemisza: Still-life / Csendélet, c 1910, Kecskeméti Képtár Magyar Vadak Párizstól Nagybányáig 1904-1914

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