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
The Artists' Table on the terrace of Café Japán, 1912 From the left: Pál Szinyei Merse, Tibor Pólya, József Róna, Adolf Fényes, Miksa Bruck, Valér Ferenczy, Elek Falus, Miklós Szigeti, József Rippl-Rónai, Lazarine However, the true weight of the artists' table was provided by some of the greatest figures in the older generation of artists well-disposed to modern art: Szinyei, Ferenczy and Rippl-Rónai. 27 It was precisely here, in Café Japán, that the latter three signed the circular that came to mark the establishment of MIÉNK in May 1907. "Malicious rumour has it that this was how it happened: as he was sitting by the artists' table in Café Japán on a romantic night, maestro Szinyei suddenly cried out: 'Damn it, boys, it is now or never that we pull off the secession that I had wanted to do in 1872.' And it was that cry, which led to the establishment of the secession MIÉNK." 28 Although contemporary journalists in the conservative press tried hard to suggest a link between the birth of modern Hungarian painting and the café scene, thus suggesting the shoddy nature of the former, curiously enough it is precisely in connection with the youngest and most progressive generation of painters that their intimation fails to bear scrutiny. It seems that Czobel and his friends preferred working away in their studios to light-hearted pastimes, which they left —at least in Budapest —to their more established elders. Of course, there were some exceptions. Dezső Czigány and Ödön Márffy are known to have been regulars of the artists' table in Café Japán, with the former being described in a contemporary newspaper as "one of the group's most amiable members, a true Bohemian." 29 In Márffy's artistic development, the coffee shop table "Balszélfogó" ("Break-wind on the Left") played a more important role. Formed in the first decade of the 20 th century, the table was attended by the editorial staff of the weekly magazine Magyar Szemle (Hungarian Review) and subsequently earned a distinguished place in the history of Hungarian literary progression. The group initially held its "sessions" in Café Báthory on KálCafé Baross on József Boulevard, the 1890s vin Square, before taking its business to Café Baross. Unlike in Café Japán, where it was predominantly painters who made up the table's membership, at the table "Balszélfogó" the writers, poets and journalist formed the majority. The list of regular members is long and impressive, featuring Zsigmond Móricz, Dezső Kosztolányi, Gyula Juhász, Géza Csáth, Mihály Babits and Lajos Fülep, each and every one of them devoutly committed to the new art. As for the painters, RipplRónai, Kernstok and Gulácsy turned up occasionally at the table, which, in addition to the contributors of Magyar Szemle, who originally made up the table of "Balszélfogó", was also attended by the founders of Thália Társaság (Thalia Society), who frequently engaged Márffy and Gulácsy in stage design work.
