Veszprémi Nóra - Jávor Anna - Advisory - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2005-2007. 25/10 (MNG Budapest 2008)

STUDIES - Ágnes FELFÖLDI: Béla Fónagy and the Belvedere Salon (1921-24)

Sándor Liezen-Mayer, Mihály Munkácsy, Károly Cserna, Sándor Brodszky, and Gyula Háry were displayed. There were graphic works also by artists who had personally been on the battlefields: engravings, drawings in chalk and watercolours by János Vaszary, József Bató, Rezső Bálint, and Viktor Erdei illustrated the various sections.

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' For his diligent and conscientious labours as well as organizing former exhibitions, the state order of the Officer's Badge of Honour of the Red Cross was conferred on Béla Fónagy.

24 Speaking several languages, Fónagy served as a militia officer in the war between November 3, 1915 and November 23, 1918. It was not in handling weapons that he excelled, neither his build, nor his nature would have made him fit for that. According to a record in the Archive of Military History, he was recommended for decoration with the Gold Cross for Merit with Crown in March 1918 because he had "organized the evacuation of the civilian population from the operational area of corps no. 4 faultlessly and with ingenious expertise."

23 As far as we know, in 1918 and 1919, the Museum of Society put on exhibitions and related educational lectures only on a smaller scale and only in Budapest.

26 After his military service, Fónagy returned to the Museum of Society. In 1920, its name was changed to Public Health Museum, and it was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Health. His employment ceased as of September 1921.

27 To eke out his other activities, he translated E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Devil's Elixir in 1920. In 1921, in association with the writer András Komor (18981944), the nephew of the architect Marcell Komor, he became the art director of the Belvedere Salon. Apart from this job, he was the chairman of the Fine Arts Free School of the National Hungarian Israelite Cultural Society (OMIKE).

28 In 1923, the Friends of the Arts Circle (Mübarátok Köre) of the OMIKE published a socalled OMIKE Folder, which included prints by the teachers of the free school. The 14 plates in the folder were by Adolf Fényes, Lipót Herman, Gusztáv Magyar-Mannheimer, Izsák Perlmutter, and Vilmos Perlrott Csaba, among others. The proceeds from the sale of the 60 copies of the folder were used for the purposes of the school.

29 Even in 1929, the paper entitled Egyenlőség mentioned Fónagy as the leader of the Friends of the Arts Circle.

30 Though the Belvedere Salon was wound up in 1924, Fónagy continued to maintain his relations with the arts and artists. Until 1929, he continually wrote articles, which he published in various art magazines, and he was one of the most prolific authors of entries in the Jewish Lexicon published in 1929. In 1926, György Gortvay was commissioned to reorganize the Public Health Museum. It was in the framework of these activities that the International Human Protection Exhibition was held at the Industry Hall between May 29 and August 3 that year. As a collaborator, Fónagy took part in the preparations for this exhibition, but was not employed as a staff member of the Public Health Museum again. Several reports were published on the exhibition.

31 Lacking resources, Fónagy moved from his District-VlII flat to 63 Attila út in District I. It was probably in 1927-28 that his old friend Károly Lyka furnished him with a biography and recommendation.

32 Perhaps it was as a result of this that he was offered a clerkship paid by the day at the National Book Distribution and Bibliographical Centre. As a speaker of several languages, Fónagy could hardly have been satisfied by this kind of boring office work, ordering and dispatching books and magazines, but had no other opportunity in the period of the Depression of 1929-33. His health declined, and he struggled with high blood pressure. In his ill state, he even lost his job. A well-wisher helped him get a place in an asylum for the elderly for the last months of his life. He died in Budapest on July 24, 1935, and was buried at the New Public Cemetery in Kozma utca. The press published all but rather taciturn obituaries: "Béla Fónagy, the well-known art historian has died in Budapest at the age of sixty. In the beginning of the 1920s, he established the gallery called 'Belvedere', and did much to promote modem art."

33 "Béla Fónagy, a writer on art history, has died aged sixty in Budapest. He will be buried in the new cemetery in Rákoskeresztúr at 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 27."

34 His tomb is no longer to be found. RECONSTRUCTING THE EXHIBITIONS OF THE BELVEDERE SALON The year 1921 brought about radical changes in Béla Fónagy's life. The establishment of govenor Miklós Horthy's régime was helped by the reorganization of ministries and the reshuffling of the administrative apparatus. In the course of these changes, the Museum of Society, which had been radicalized in 1919, was placed under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Health. In the hysterical aftermath of the revolutions, the old-new political elite, conceding to public anti-semitic sentiment, passed the infamous Numerus Clausus Act, which limited the number of Jewish stu2. Gyula Murányi: Cleopatra, ca. 1913. HNG