Őriné Nagy Cecília (szerk.): A népművészet a 19-20. század fordulójának művészetében és a gödöllői művésztelepen (Gödöllői Múzeumi Füzetek 8. Gödöllői Városi Múzeum, 2006)
Folk Art as Reflected in the Art at the Turn of the 19,h and 20th Centuries and in the Art Colony of Gödöllő. Abstracts in English / Angol nyelvű összefoglalók
Abstracts in English 221 Mária G. MERVA historian of literature Municipal Museum of Gödöllő APOSTLESHIP AROUND FOLK ART CULTURAL MISSION OF THE ARTISTS OF GÖDÖLLŐ AS REFLECTED IN THEIR WRITINGS The members of the Gödöllő art colony have incarnated and established an artist type in Hungary. It was part of their many-sided activities to formulate in writing their ideas about art, that is they assumed literary roles. It was because of Elek KoronghiLippich's cultural policy making conception just taking shape and the movement and collecting work led by Malonyay supporting this conception that Aladár KörösfőiKriesch had to expound in details his ideas on folk art. The artists of Gödöllő had a clear-cut, carefully formulated opinion on folk art and on the ways how a modern artist can adopt it in his creative work. It was Aladár KörösfőiKriesch who expounded their opinion of and approach to folk art in his articles published mainly in the periodical Hungarian Arts and Crafts. In Körösfői-Kriesch's opinion, folk art is of social origin, materialistic, it is decorative in a distinguished manner and expedient: It is absolutely identical with the needs of life and with that of the individual, it creates things answering the purpose in an honest way with no ostentation. He stresses the autochthon character of folk art: the peasants have lived for centuries in the same circumstances, hardly anything has changed in their way of life, in their background, and consequently, their art is permanent, speaking always the same language of form and "this bestows on it yet another charm in the eyes of the modern cosmopolitan bereft of nationality". He or she admires the vivid strength of folk art, its quick-tolife resourcefulness enabling it to absorb, to transform onto its image all influences. And what is the modern artists' task, what attitude they should adopt with respect to folk art? Körösfői-Kriesch makes it absolutely clear and in a very determined manner that they do not want neither to imitate nor to continue folk art; it would be untrue and sinful, for folk art has met needs quite different from theirs and its language of form has not stemmed from their soul. On the other hand, it may teach the artists a new approach of how to perform artistic tasks, the treasury of forms it has may enrich and fertilize the set of forms of modern artists. In Körösfői-Kriesch's view, folk art is the mentor of the man of modern age in this sense. The approach to folk art of the group of Körösfői-Kriesch was quite different from the then official artificially fabricated historically conceived folk-myth. For the official ideology, the Hungarian people was considered as a target, emphasizing the ethnical and racial characteristics inherent in folk art, while the group around Körösfői-Kriesch had a purely aesthetically based approach to folk art, considering its simple, pure, transparent, art-formative principles as a paragon and as something to be preserved. Such an aesthetical-minded cultural mission to save folk art can be found also in the writings and creations of Körösfői-Kriesch.
