Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)

FROM PARIS TO NAGYBÁNYA - PÉTER MOLNOS: Budapest: The "Paris of the East" in the Hungarian Wilderness

PÉTER MOLNOS Budapest: The "Paris of the East" in the Hungarian Wilderness The often-repeated cliché, whereby it would be difficult to overemphasize the importance of Paris' role in the development of modern Hungarian painting, is tantamount to the tacit admission of Budapest's insignificance. There is no denying that Hungarian modernism was born in the French capital and that even after the movement had "grown roots" on Hungarian soil, there were a number of provincial towns

—Nagybánya, Nyergesújfalu and even Kaposvár—, which in this particular respect eclipsed the significance of Budapest, the city that led the way in every other respect. It appears that in this brief period

—from the turn of the century to the emergence of Nyolcak—the artists' inclination to shrug off traditions was directly proportional to their geographical distance from the capital. For quite some time, Hungarian modernism only put in rare and occasional appearances at Budapest: with their hearts left in Paris, painters preferred Nagybánya, Kecskemét and Nyergesújfalu, whenever they wanted to paint. Mintarajziskola ("Drawing School") on Andrássy Street, the 1890s