Magyar Hírek, 1985 (38. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)
1985-09-21 / 19-20. szám
message, what only he could say. The exhibition starts with the works that were left from the crop of the second half of the thirties—Bálint destroyed his juvenalia—from the period about which Árpád Szélpál, the Grand Old Man of progressive Hungarian art wrote in 1938: “Endre Bálint is a young talent. He is sympathetically courageous, and even while still immature, he shows his lion’s claws. His pictures are concieved in the French spirit, and this spirit is coupled with a good sense of colour, and many youthful ideas He experiments, sometimes he shoots past the target, but even these flings of his are sympathetic because they carry the unmistakeable marks of talent and serious artistic intent. This young talent deserves the utmost attention particularly today, when there are fewer and fewer courageous young artists walking their own way, and most of them get involved in some mannerism that has already faded into some school.” Long periods of being ignored, voluntary and forced inner exile, personal ups and downs and historical tragedies matured his art to individuality, past his fortieth year, during his several years stay in Paris. That, which was play, experiment, adventure for a long time became the singular chance of life there and then. As if a miracle had happened to him. he found his own world of forms, his own message. His own memories broke up from the depths, the dramas preserved in historical memory, which raised the art of Bartók and Vajda to the rank of validity everywhere and at all times. Views of Szentendre, the small town near Budapest, come to life in his pictures; views of that settlement at the crossing point of cultures, where the Hungarian and the Slav, the old and the new meet in a brotherly union. The Szentendre motives are the basic forms of the fairytale world of Bálint but they are also able to give words to that which cannot fit into the story: the historical, the terrible collective cataclysms of the 20th century, the frightful extremes of the soul of modern man, and the most frigthening of the haunting shadows, anxiety, the loss of faith. But also the opposite of that, the knowledge that life and art are eternal, the presence of the sacred in everyday happenings. (It is not by chance that Bálint produced perhaps the most beautiful Bible illustrations in our age.) Yearning and truth, pain and love, obtain colour and form side by side in his pictures. Bálint is not simply a great artist, but more than that: he is indismissible for us to find our way home in this life. One of the sensations for the many visitors was the collection of photo-montages. “... I deface shawlwearing peasant women: I cut their faces out and stick them to the top of a table, cut off two legs of the table and form a cross with them, then I cut out the Saviour, and nail him to the cross-shaped bottom plank of a boat and all the time I revive His sufferings, which became mine ...”—he writes about his montages in the catalogue. These, just like his paintings, monotypes, objects are visions about the drama of Man, timely and timeless, individual and collective, Hungarian and international at the same time. If I had to make a list of the artists the man of today needs to make his life more bearable, and to rekindle the hope for something better, I would mention Bálint's name among the first. CSYBA SÍK Radio Hungary in English Sports News Karate World Championships in Budapest The recognition of WUKO, the World Carate Association in recent weeks by the International Olympic Committee opened the way for this sport to the Olympic Games. György Popper the General Secretary of the Hungarian Karate Association, who was elected by WUKO to membership of the Olympic Preparatory Committee, stated in an interview given to Esti Hírlap that in all probability karate will form part of the 1992 Olympic Games. He believes that men’s competitions in various weight groups should be introduced as a first step, and the other competitions could follow at later Olympic Games on the experience of this. György Popper announced that World Championships in the kickbox version of the sport, will be held in November this year at the Budapest Sports Hall. Competition programme around the World for Zsuzsa Polgár Zsuzsa Polgár, the young woman chess-player who created controversy some time ago, since she made up her mind to participate only in open competitions, coming up against the opposition of the conservatives in the game, now seems to have check-mated her opponents not only on the board. She played in the Federal Republic of Germany recently, where—being the only woman in the field—she finished second with 5.5 points in a seven-round tournament on the Swiss system. Following that, she was also successful at a tournament of a similar kind in Amsterdam, and now looks forward to tournaments in Baden- Baden, Malaysia, Singapore, Dortmund, New York, Jamaica, Plzen, Dresden and Brussells. The computer now shows Zsuzsa Polgár as second in the world ranking list for women. Tennis Championship of Hungarian Doctors Many doctors play tennis in Hungary. Recognizing the popularity of the game, a doctors’ tournament was held for the first time in 1984, where ninety competitors from all part of the country played. “The premiere was a success”—said Dr. János Borsay, a former top-line competitor who became a surgeon and now works at the Orthopedic Teaching Hospital—“so it will be held again this September in Budapest. The Hungarian doctors joined the International Association of Tennis Playing Doctors, which was established in 1971 and now has a membership of fifty-seven national organizations. The Hungarian team would like to participate at the world championship tournament of tennis-playing doctors in 1986 at Florence.” The programmes are broadcast in English on Tuesdays and repeated on other days presented below September 3rd to September 9th Events and efforts during the decline of the Austro—Hungarian Monarchy in the early years of this century. Two outstanding political figures of the period: Oszkár Jászi, the leading radical politician who left Hungary in May 1919 to live and die in the United States, and Ervin Szabó, the Social Democratic advocate of an alliance between the workers and peasants. September 10th to September 16th A portrait from the gallery of great Hungarian personalities of the past: Imre Mikó, the patron of learning and the arts. Mikó used the respect he commanded and the finances he had for the advancement of Transylvania: he had railroads built, promoted the development of the Hungarian language and the dissemination of scientific knowledge, financed the activities of the national theatre in Kolozsvár and was a patron of schools. September 17th to September 23rd A portrait from the gallery of great Hungarian personalities: Zoltán Tildy. A parson of the Reformed Church by profession, Tildy was one of the founders of the Hungarian Small Holders Party in 1930, a political force exerting a major influence on the Hungarian scene between the mid-1930’s and 1948. The policies pursued by the Small Holders Party and Tildy and their role during the Second World War and in the postwar years. September 24th to September 30th An important city of commerce and literary centre in eastern Hungary: Nagyvárad at the turn of the century. The activities of some of the renowned men, of letters of the city: Ákos Dutka, Gyula Juhász and Endre Ady and their contribution to an epoch-making anthology named Tomorrow. Meanwhile a literary periodical named Nyugat—which is the Hungarian word for West—was launched in Budapest. During the first three months of programming in the 9th year of the serial The Origins and Development of the Hungarian People Hungarian Radio will continue to adopt the previous method of repeating revised and updated versions of the most successful instalments of our serial broadcast during the basic four years of programming between the autumn of 1977 and early summer of 1981. Each instalment is broadcast five times during the week. The programme is transmitted first every Tuesday at 18.00 Greenwich Mean Time (or 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time). It is then repeated four times according to the following sequence: —every Wednesday at 00.30 GMT (or Tuesday, 8.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time); —every Friday at 18.00 GMT (or 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time); —every Saturday at 00.30 GMT (or Friday, 8.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time); —every Monday at 03.00 GMT (or Sunday, 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time). The programme on Tuesday and the four repeats are transmitted on short wave on the 25, 31, 41 and 49 metre bands, that is, on 11910, 9655, 9585 and 6110 kHz, respectively. We wish to remind you that as from September 29th we shall switch back from daylight saving time and will be broadcasting the programme and the four repeats one hour later, that is, every Tuesday and Friday at 19.00 GMT (or 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time), every Wednesday and Saturday at 01.30 GMT (or 9.30 ENDRE ADY p.m. Eastern Standard Time) and every Monday at 04.00 GMT (or Sunday midnight Eastern Standard Time). There will be no change in frequencies. In the hope that you will be interested in the programmes and will continue to listen to them regularly the editors, Judit Cservenka for the Hungarian and István Butykay for the English programmes invite you to send in your comments and observations on the serial as a whole or on individual instalments Sug gestions are welcome and appreciated. For further information or details please write to The Editors of Hungary's History Serial c/o Szülőföldünk Magyar Rádió, Budapest 1800 Hungary 63
