Gyergyádesz László, ifj.: Kecskemét és a magyar zsidó képzőművészet a 20. század első felében (Kecskemét, 2014)
Jegyzetek
that time: “Nagybánya is the place of the victorious outbreak of the impressionist art, and it represented a unique principle, conviction and Art Credo; the artists of Szolnok were kept together by more or less one thought, the Hungarian Naturalism. Kecskemét has no common conviction, principle or faith. Some of the Kecskemét artists are naturalists, the direct followers of the traditions of Szolnok, others are over the Naturalism and are experimenting with completely new tendencies. One branch of the colony is intensely decorative, while other has nothing to do with decoration. There are true, individual talents among them who cannot be categorized into any kind of group. The colony of Kecskemét is for the time being a heterogeneous group which is held together only by the pure love of art and the fact of cohabitation.'’ Although Géza Faragó (1877-1928) and Tibor Pólya (1886-1937) of the riverside town - according to the above mentioned criticism - would be listed in the decorative group on the basis of their now discussed works, they spent time with Adolf Fényes at the artists' colony of Szolnok. In the case of the former one those two years seem to be particularly essential when he had been working in the workshop of Alfons Mucha in Paris. "Géza Faragó was then a nationwide known poster painter and a costume designer, moreover, as the Hungarian Chaplin, he wondrously cheered everybody up. .. .like water gushing from a spring, humour and jollity came out from this wonderful, skinny, ’bird-headed’ man.” One of his most famous placards advertising the Tungsram wolfram lights was designed during his stay in Kecskemét or about that time. Fortunately our collection possesses the tempera picture painted in 1912 (Plate 21) that was, in all probability, the typographical sample. As part of the Nemes donation we took possession of the painting titled Among Flowers (Plate 19) made one year earlier and these two works show that Géza Faragó represents the secessionist tendencies - and the influence of Nabis - at the colony Placard-like sharp outlines characterize the picture of Tibor Pólya as well where we can see his younger brother, Iván - who also visited Kecskemét - playing the violin (Plate 20). The occurrence of the characteristic features of graphic arts is not accidental in this painting constructed with two-dimensional patches since several illustrations and caricatures of Pólya were published in Vasárnapi Újság and Borsszem Jankó in the years of 1910. “Kecskemét was a strange place with a secessionist town centre, more and more rural houses away from the centre and somewhere way Perlrott Csaba Vilmos: Sirató asszonyok (Bibliai alakok) / Vilmos Perlrott Csaba: Wailing Women (Biblical figures) (1922) out of the city there was the Gypsy district - so painterly like an Arabic village.” One of the popular themes of the colony was the Gypsy neighbourhood next to the Műkert Park that was often painted by Iványi, and was depicted in one of his earliest Kecskemét paintings around 1910 and got to the collection by the donation of Marcell Nemes (Kecskemét Scenery, page 51). The topic occurs in the works of several painter students for example in the case of the twenty-three-year-old Rudolf Diener Dénes (1889-1956) in 1912 (Gypsy Hovel, Plate 23), Similarly to Nagybánya and Szolnok there was a summer course for academy students in Kecskemét in 1912 and 1913, and the paintings of the students were corrected by Iványi as well as Ferenc Olgyay who led the separation of the more conservative section in the autumn of 1913. The In the Garden (The Tea Party, Plate 14) of Iványi Grünwald is usually mentioned as one of the main masterpieces of the colony which - according to a photo of 1912 - was made in two versions. Taking advantage of the fundamental opportunities of the Műkert Iványi often painted nude and clothed figures outside, in a natural environment which - chiefly in connection with certain commissions - could easily be associated with the iconography of Arcadian 54
