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

LÓRÁND BERECZKY: The First Fifty Years - 50™ ANNIVERSARY OF THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY - Krisztina PASSUTH: Back Home Again: The Paris-Budapest Odyssey of the Tihanyi Estate

it had been from me, I had spoken to her about it. To this Klára Garas said: "You certainly deserve disciplinary punishment, my dear girl, for not being able to keep your mouth shut." Thus, the disciplinary action was taken off the agenda, and the chest got to its proper place, the National Gallery (but I cannot recall when and how this actually happened). It is obvious from the story related why there was no regular hand-over and take-over with inventories, etc. made. At the National Gallery, the papers in the chest were subsequently passed on to the most suitable art historian, Béla Szíj, who made an excellent job of processing them; the catalogue cards he wrote of them several decades ago are still the starting point of any research on Tihanyi. The documents are now in the Archive of the Gallery properly placed, readily accessible, easy to survey. Now, after thirty-seven years, I have pored through them again.

24 II. ON THE CONTENTS OF THE TIHANYI CHEST In the following, I do not wish to make a study of the paintings and drawings brought home, as several books and essays have performed this task. What has not taken place, however, is the reconstruction of the contents of the chest, in other words, primarily the posthumous papers of Tihanyi.

25 And the question arises: what is the significance of all this with respect to and what novelty has it to say about the oeuvre of Tihanyi? For perspicuity's sake, I have classified the material of the chest in the following way: Works of art, other chattels: - original works (Henri Nouveau, etc.); transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts; - photos (partly by André Kertész) of persons (mostly Tihanyi himself) and of studios, artworks; (Ills. 1-2) - three film reels, two of which were made of Tihanyi; - a metal icon with Tihanyi's photo; (111. 4) - personal belongings (pipe, wallet, penknife, etc.). Posthumous papers: - Tihanyi's confessions and personal notes in various languages; -Tihanyi's correspondence; - Tihanyi's address books, notebooks with entries; (111. 5) - order sheets for Robert Desnos 's monograph of Tihanyi (1936); - lists of pictures with Tihanyi's notes (owners' names, prices, etc.); - catalogues of Tihanyi's works, annotated; - studies of Tihanyi's works or other subjects; - newspaper clippings, shorter articles on Tihanyi's works or other subjects. For all their accidentality, these surviving documents reflect the personality, the concerns, the life course and relationships of Tihanyi. Most of the writings are from Paris, where he spent a significant part of his life. He hardly preserved any keepsakes, letters or publications from Hungary and Germany, which is understandable since he had had to move several times, and could barely have taken along everything. (On the other hand, he was careful to save all his Paris restaurant menus.) Some of the papers 4. Metal icon containing a photograph of Tihanyi, HNG Archive, inv. no.: 18883/1974 have official aspects, being requests for rent reduction, attempts at selling pictures, letters on the issues of his sustenance, often hopeless administrative affairs. The order sheets for Robert Desnos's book on his work that Tihanyi sent to numerous friends, acquaintances and buyers witness to similar efforts. The signatures on the sheets hint at the system of relationships Tihanyi 5. Page from one of Tihanyi's notebooks, with the addresses of Virgil Ciaclan, Béla Czóbel, Marc Chagall and Blaise Cendrars among others, HNG Archive, inv. no.: 18898/1973