Gulyás Katalin – Horváth László – Kaposvári Gyöngyi – Pató Mária szerk.: Nyitott kapuk. Hetvenéves a szolnoki Damjanich János Múzeum (A Damjanich János Múzeum kincsei, 2004)

Angol nyelvű összefoglaló

The Tabán house deserves a chapter of its own, because in 1992 a dwelling house was saved and furnished as a standing exhibition so that future generations can visit the place and learn about our past. Tabán was one of the most archaic parts of Szolnok popular with artists too. In Our standing exhibitions one can read about the details of our two major exhibitions. "The Art of Crafts", which shows the culture of the ethnographic and regional groups of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county; while "Rural life in the MidTisza region" offers an insight into rustic lifestyle (fishing, herding, grape and fruit growing, dwelling houses and economy). The chapter called A review of the scientific research in- and outside the county is about the activities that's going on in the museum and our colleagues' findings. Conferences enumerates the results of all the major scientific conferences held in the museum. The last chapter titled Ethnographic and idiom competitions is about how these competitions enabled researchers to co-operate with their colleagues outside the county. The first competition was called in 1957, and several applicants have regularly taken part in these events for decades. LÁSZLÓ ZSOLNAY: THE FINE ART COLLECTION Next to high quality artistic creation, one of the main aims of the Artists' Colony of Szolnok founded in 1902 was to establish a permanent collection of fine art in Szolnok. It was the artists themselves who started collecting, and by 1944 the colony had gathered a significant collection of works of art for the future cabinet. However, in 1944 the majority of these pieces either perished or disappeared. In the 1950's the János Damjanich Museum started to collect the material of the local artists' colony. The increasing collection was from time to time displayed in several seasonal exhibitions. But it wasn't until 1997 that a permanent exhibition had been created. The history of the Artists' Colony started during the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848-49, when an excellent painter from Vienna, August von Pettenkofen accompanied the Austrian troops in the region as their military painter. Encouraged by him, several Austrian and German painters visited the town, and carried the name of our town into European exhibition halls. By this time Szolnok had become a real artistic centre inside Hungary. At the turn of the century the artists felt that the time was right to found an official artists' colony to help creative work. Founded in 1901 the Artistic Association of Szolnok initiated the establishment of the colony, which came to existence in 1902. The aim of the colony was to paint the surrounding landscape and the life of the local people in the open air. The artists of the colony have stood by this determination up to the present day, and they are still seeking for and picturing the beauty of this corner of the Hungarian land. Between the two world wars many determinant artists lived and worked here near Adolf Fényes, such as Tibor Pólya, Vilmos Aba-Novák, and Aurél Bernáth, but Eszter Mattioni, Kálmán Istókovics, Zoltán Borbereki Kovács, István Zádor, Lajos Szlányi, Iván Pólya, and Ferenc Chiovini also settled here. The studios damaged during World War II were destroyed by the 50's and they were occupied by a new generation of artists. 2002 marked a turning point in the history of the colony, when the Artistic Association of Szolnok was re-launched, and the left side wing studios of the colony, which had been in ruins for many years, were re-built. This tempted many new artists to the colony whose inhabitants had abated during the years. The works of art that were born in and around Szolnok show that this town has always been an anchorage for our artists, it has sent a silent and assiduous challenge to those who once experienced its peculiar appeal. There must be some kind of promise and a source of beauty in this land and its people since they could attract both foreign artists and Hungarians who returned from abroad. Not only did it lure them but mellowed the special innerly taste of their art inside them. Apart from collecting the pieces of art of the Artists' Colony of Szolnok, in the 1970's a new intention emerged to extend the collection with the works of contemporary Hungarian artists. The Szolnok Fine Art Triennale launched in 1975 gave 143