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)

1923. The bulk of the material in this estate exhibition of Vilmos Fémes Beck found its way into various public collections, mostly the National Gallery and the Petőfi Museum of Literature. His early death was caused by the terminal disease he had contracted during the First World War. His identifiable exhibits include: Woman with a Bird (1912), Woman Kneeling (fountain figure from the hall of the former Schiffer villa; 1912), Man Kneeling (fountain figure from the hall of the former Schiffer villa; 1912) (Ills. 10—11), Jenő Tersánszky Józsi (1910), Lajos Tihanyi (1910). Being in personal friendship with the writers around the Nyugat (Occident; the most influential literary magazine of the time) and especially authoress Margit Kaffka, he designed a poster for the magazine.

66 Géza Pap ( 1883-?) presented not only his latest work but also the pastels he had drawn during his war captivity. The subject matter of his exhibits included animals, circuses, Tartar land- and cityscapes, Hungarian landscapes and Budapest details. The magazine Múlt és Jövő warmly recommended the show: "Géza Pap seeks to find artistic development through the plasticity of lines and a stylization of finally simplified nature." The pictures the magazine reproduced, whose whereabouts are yet unknown, included the following: The Prey of the Panther; Grove Detail; Landscape Study; Tamed Wild Beasts; Circus; Siesta; Reindeer, and Astrahan Detail, However, some of his Belvedere exhibits now in private collections have been fortuitously identified: Hillside Houses and Astrahan (1916), Orenburg Detail (1917).

67 Armand Schönberger (1885-1974) arranged his first major exhibition together with the sculptor Dezső Bokros Birman at the Belvedere Salon in April 1923. Schönberger had been in close friendship with Lajos Kassák and the members of The Sevens (Hetek or Fiatalok [Youths] in Hungarian) founded in 1917, many of whom had left Hungary for longer periods after 1919.

68 The HNG holds two of his drawings ( Vera, 1922; Self-Portrait, 1922) dating to this period.

69 It is of particular interest that Thomas Mann visited the exhibition, and compared the characteristics of German and Hungarian expressionism, emphasizing that he found the aspirations of the Hungarians more honest and powerful.

70 In his exhibits, the narrower and broader surroundings of his home come to new life: Margit utca; Óbuda; Buda Detail; Railway Crossing, or, the graphic work Under the Bridge (1922), as well as works depicting himself and his family: Family (1918); Self-Portrait; Vera; Mother and Daughter. The sketches of the masterpieces of the coming years also appeared at this time: Coffee House Scene and In the Coffee House. His attachment to the Belvedere is also attested by the fact he participated at both the First and Second Group Exhibition the Salon organized. A student in Budapest and Paris for a short while, the sculptor Dezső Bokros Birman (18891965) shaped his characteristically acrid, expressive art after serving on the front in the war. He recollected the Belvedere show in the following terms: "The encouraging criticism Thomas Mann offered me still fills me with gratification. He told me I was a talented artist. He underscored the psychological content, the visuality of the portrait. I would be a great artist - that was how he said good-bye."

71 The spring season of 1923 was closed by a group show, presenting works by former Belvedere exhibitors. On one occasion, works by earlier Hungarian masters were also displayed at the Salon, however, no detailed catalogue was published this time. Only an invitation card listed the exhibitors, leading figures of earlier Hungarian painting, such as: Károly Marko, Antal Ligeti, Károly Lötz, and Károly Telepy. The exhibition is likely to have served primarily business purposes. In 1923, after a year in France, Pál Molnár C. (1889-1981) returned to Hungary, and exhibited his ecclesiastic works in the Belvedere Salon. We know only a few of these exhibits, mostly drawings emanating with a joy of life and elegance accomplished with virtuoso ease. Of his oils, his Self-Portrait of 1917 and Tabán dated to 1923 - both in private collections - have been identified. From among his graphic works, the Belvedere exhibited Erotique; Motherhood (Maternité); Horses; Bathers, and The Three Graces (all from 1922).

72 In acknowledgment of his art, Molnár C. was invited by the Az Est to be draughtsman for three of its subsidiary papers. He was received as a member of KUT in 1925. István Szigethy (1891-1966) had already attracted attention with his illustrations for works of the writer Dezső Szomory in 1917. He liked the company of writers, and made an oil portrait of his prematurely deceased friend, the painter Ede Bohacsek. He bestowed his portrait of Gyula Derkovits he had drawn in ink in 1921 on the HNG. The other Belvedere exhibits of his we know of are his oil entitled Motherhood and the folder entitled Grotesque with its five engravings made in 1922, now in the possession of the Museum of Fine Arts.

73 On the behest of his fellow-soldier and friend Ernő Hrabéczy, László Holló (1887-1976) settled down in Debrecen after his dis9. Gyula Derkovits: The Shepherd, 1922. HNG