Lázár Imre – Nyakas Miklós: A Hajdúsági Nemzetközi Művésztelep húsz éve 1964-1983 / Hajdúsági Közlemények 12. (Hajdúböszörmény, 1983)

Tartalom

and who lives in the town at present, has lived here or who has already had an exhibition in the town, can be invited. So the workshop opened in the summer of 1964 and its tasks were to follow the path of realistic traditions and to produce a home for the education of the younger generations. In the starting years the painters György Zilahy, Lajos Szlávik and Lajos Bíró, the last of whom was the co-ordinator of the leaders of the county's professional circles, had a great part in organizing the workshop. Monetarily the workshop was sponsored by the Town Council of Hajdúböszörmény. The first closing exhibition of the workshop did not have a good quality and therefore it was concluded that in the future amateurs can take part in its activities only if they are on the required level. The following years saw a noticable development and it seemed for a while that the workshop was going to become an organized refresher course of a comparatively large part of the country. But the artistic level still continued to be on a low standard what inevitably followed from the organization of the workshop. Thematically the new and the old features of the town and the region were favoured. At this time the number of artists taking part in the activities was around thirty and forty and the workshop had a branch in Tiszacsege, too. The authorities sponsoring it soon became aware of the fact that the group of the artists and that of those taking part in the refreshing course should be differentiated. So 1967 was the last year of the so-called amateur era of the workshop. From 1968 the only authority to sponsor the workshop has been the town-council of Hajdúböszörmény and only artists have been invited. It was at this time, too, that the Miklós Káplár commemorative medal and artistic prize was founded by the town's council which ever since then has been the most dignified prize of the workshop. The principles of awarding the prize have also been set but in all cases the council of the town hasasked the opinion of the jury, too. According to the founding document those awardwd the prize are asked to offer one of their pictures to the arts collection of Hajdúböszörmény. This was the starting point of the practice that later all the artists taking part started offering one of their works to Hajdúböszörmény. As from 1968 on only artists were invited the schedule changed somewhat, offering a full artistic freedom and absolutely free way of life and only such basic principles were set as for instance observing one's civic duties. By this time the most basic traditions of the workshop had been formed (closing exhibition, award of the Káplár prize, offer of pictures, wreathing the tomb of Miklós Káplár). Despite the difficulties in the organization the year 1968 was a turning point in the history of the workshop. The reviews of the closing exhibition in that year contained two new elements: quality and unity. This was due to the fact that the aesthetic level had been raised. Unity meant first of alt spiritual and ethical unity. All these changes contributed to the workshop's becoming an organic part of the cultural and artistic life of the county and the whole area of the river Tisza. It occured to the mind of the organizers already at this point that they should invite Hungarian painters and sculptors from Rumania, the Ukraine and Slovakia, too. This was the first step towards the workshop's becoming international though at this point limited only to Hungarians. So in 1969 the first two artists arrived from abroad (from Marosvásárhely, Románia). At this time the circle of those invited was quite diverse, consisting of painters, sculptors, graphic artists, ceramists and so forth. The members of the forming group of regular artists were all realists in the modern sense of the word. In 1971 Hajdúböszörmény's town council and the Union of the Hungarian Fine and Design Artists agreed that the workshop be declared international officially. According to this agreement artists from abroad are invited only by the Union. According to the very first conception artists only from the socialist countries were to be invited but later some from Western Europe were also invited though this was rare. As the workshop was becoming international the time-limit was raised to one month and so were the costs, too. 44