Barki Gergely et al.: Czóbel. A French Hungarian painter - ArtMill publications 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
Gergely Barki: Czóbel from Paris to Paris 1903-1925
75. BÉLA CZÓBEL: INTERIOR, 1910. BUDAPEST, GÁBOR KOVÁCS COLLECTION. Photo: KOGART Archívum 76. Béla Czóbel: Sitting Woman, around 1912. Szentendre, Ferenczy Museum Czóbel still-lifes for the New Hungarian Pictures, a travelling exhibition that he organized in the Hungarian countryside’s large cities: Kolozsvár (today Cluj Napoca, Romania), Nagyvárad (today Oradea, Romania) and Arad (today Arad, Romania). Czóbel did not personally take part in the exhibition, which primarily featured young painters who had been to Paris and strove for renewal, just as he would not attend one of its off-shoots, The Eight’s first showing entitled the New Pictures in the Kálmán Könyves Salon at the turn of 1909 and 1910. He resided in Paris at the time of arrangements for the group’s formation. In the spring of 1909, he displayed again at Berthe Weill’s Gallery.49 Only in one letter did Dezső Czigány inform him at the end of the year that they were preparing an exhibition and asked him to borrow works to present.50 Like Róbert Berény, he did not send pictures, but had his painting that remained in Hungary delivered to the exhibition. Thus, it was not his freshest pictures from 1909 that appeared at the New Pictures show. Insofar as my hypothesis concerning the reconstruction is correct, his works from 1907 and 1908 were featured. At The Eight’s events, Czóbel was represented only one time - that is, at the New Pictures event, with altogether three paintings - and so he became an eternal member of the group. On the international art market in recent years, two still-life paintings 49 In the exhibition that opened in March 1909, he displayed his works in the company of Metzinger, Girieud, Tarkhoff, Charmy and Kleinmann. Source: La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité (Expositions nouvelles), 1909, [n.p.] 50 We know about Czigány’s letter of request to Czóbel from a previously unpublished letter sent by Róbert Berény to Bertalan Pór: “I also received Czigány’s letter, which he addressed to Czóbel. It would interest me to know where he’s on display. I don’t even know his pictures. [...] I send Kernstok and Czigány many greetings. Orbán, too. I can see in the distant future that this spirited group will end in a big squabble.” (I thank Júlia Bernáth and Pál Farkas for placing this letter at my disposal.) CZÓBEL FROM PARIS TO PARIS, 1903-1925 59
