Vámosi Katalin: Mazsaroff Miklós 1929-1997 : A természet igézetében (Miskolc, 2010)
Summary
SUMMARY For more than 40 years there were several connections in between the life and oeuvre of the painter and graphical artist Miklós Mazsaroff and the city of Miskolc. Together with his wife of Bulgarian origin, Dr. Nikolaeva Maria he settled in the chief town of Borsod county in the year 1958, and he lived here until his death on 6 l h September 1997. Topics like the North-Hungarian countryside, the inhabitants of Borsod county and the hardworking manual labour were continuously represented in his art. His family was also connected to this part of the country, since his father of Bulgarian origin and his Hungarian mother had been employed as commence gardeners of the Vay barons, where Miklós Mazsaroff was born on 24 December 1929. He began his studies in Miskolc, in the Bulgarian language elementary school, then - following the family traditions - was trained to be a gardener. Early in his childhood, working together with his parents, he learned the special skills that an expert gardener needs, and he was very much interested in plants and nature as such. This interest followed him throughout his adult age as well. "It was the family environment that taught me to perceive and adore the beauty of the countryside, the value and freak of the flowers" - the artist confessed. His paintings began to show the evidence of his attraction towards his origins: the warm colours of the Balkan, Mediterranean scenery soon appeared in his pictures after his visits to Bulgaria in the years 1956 and 1957. His passion towards the magical world and colours of the southern countryside could well be seen in his new works of art after his study-tours with his friends and family in Italy, Spain, Greece and the Canaries. New and new pictures, fresh inspirations and novel themes are to be found in his oeuvre after such experiences. First he visited Italy - down to the South as far as Sicily - in the company of a former Weimar Bauhaus student, then teacher of the Berlin Itten Schule, Gyula Pap. The visit took place in 1967, and it was then that he 38 first felt the real beauty and rich colours of the Mediterranean scenery, that appeared as one of the most characteristic features of his oeuvre in his exhibition organized in Budapest, in the Fényes Adolf Showroom. This exhibition proved to be a milestone in the painter's life. He had got acquainted with his first master, Gyula Pap in the spring of 1947 in Nagymaros. The master supported young talented people from different villages and towns to be trained with the help of the Community College for the Gifted named after Nagy Balogh János. Mazsaroff - belonging to the generation of the "Fényes szelek" "Sparkling Winds" - persuaded by the Miskolc painter Kálmán Döbröczöni first had joined the Batsányi Community College, but - missing the fine art training - he then changed his mind and turned towards the Nagy Balogh János College where he got excellent training in fine art. The pedagogical methods of Gyula Pap followed those of the Bauhaus school, focusing the form-creativity, demanding careful and precise work. The plein-air paintings were created outside in the open air, for the students had the occasion of modelling the plants and flowers in their natural environments. One year later the Nagymaros College ceased to function as an independent institution and was integrated in the Derkovits Fine Art Community College in Budapest, the students were obliged to take entrance examinations to the Academy of Fine Arts. Miklós Mazsaroff studied at the Academy in between the years 1948 and 1953 under such great masters as Gyula Pap, Bertalan Pór, Róbert Berény and Endre Domanovszky. He could well experience the socialideological-political changes of the 50's at the academy, where he could witness the change of the structures, the ideological changing of the staff, and the political purge. He was enthusiastic about the art of Róbert Berény, who - following the post-Nagybánya traditions - illustrated that a real artist could well create his own artistic world even against strong forcing powers. Miklós Mazsaroff married as young as an undergraduate, and in 1953 - after his son's birth - got a job as a delineator at the Military Academy of Logistics. Working there for eight months he concluded some two-year socialist contracts with Budapest factories. As a young husband he was
