Barki Gergely et al.: Czóbel. A French Hungarian painter - ArtMill publications 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
R. Stanley Johnson: Béla Czóbel
Picasso’s letter to Béla Czóbel: “My dear Béla Czóbel, I remember your canvases exhibited in the rooms of the Fauves on the Salon d’Automne and on the Salon des Indépendants. Now I wish you the success you had had at that time. How is it possible that from this period you are not represented among the Fauves with any paintings? With warm greetings and friendly hands, Picasso.” 1956, Private collection portant element of the Hungarian school. Justas Brancusi, Pascin and Soutine, for example, made significant contributions to art movements in the countries of their origins, it would not be logical to classify them principally as members of the Romanian, Bulgarian and Lithuanian schools. Their individual accomplishments, as those of Czóbel, must be considered in broader European terms, no longer limited by traditional artistic and geographic borders. It must be said that within all the cultural crosscurrents, Béla Czóbel remained essentially a very isolated and solitary creator. In the decades before Czóbel’s time, an artist’s production usually would have been divided into successive periods, corresponding to different stages within his artistic maturation. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the descriptions of artistic “periods” have become more complex and increasingly related to an individual artist’s conscious breaks with and reactions to overall contemporary changes in aesthetic taste and fashion. In the development of his personal style, Czóbel was a major participant in the Hungarian school of Nagybánya (today Baia Mare), then in Fauvism in France, then in The Eight in Hungary, and finally in German Expressionism. A comparison of his works from one period to another shows enormous diversity but also the presence of a consistently robust, yet extremely sensitive artistic personality. The art of Czóbel, like the novels of Franz Kafka or the writings of Robert Musil, or the criticism of Walter Benjamin or the portraits of Modigliani, did not participate clearly in either an existing literary or artistic order, nor did it introduce a new genre which could fit easily into a future classification. His paintings are a complex balance among traditions ranging from impressionism to Hungarian p/e/nair painting to Fauvism and to German and Dutch Expressionism. At the same time, his works always stood on the cusp of one aspect or another of an avant-garde, as variously viewed from Budapest, Amsterdam, Berlin or Paris. The passionately created works of Béla Czóbel, through both drawing and colour, express extremely personal sentiments. They have their regional characteristics, special combinations of eastern, northern and western components, and particular sensitivities and vitalities, all partaking in their unique beauty. In view of the varying nature and breadth of his talent, the art of Czóbel has to be reconsidered and re-evaluated within the broadest historical and aesthetic perspectives. Chicago, May 2014 Béla Czóbel and Mária Modok in Picasso’s studio, 1955, PRIVATE COLLECTION CZOBEL, A FRENCH HUNGARIAN PAINTER 11
