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

Lajos Tihanyi: Budapest Detail, cca. 1912 Cat. No. 243a. A carícature prompted by the 1913 exhibition entitled Views of Budapest, held in Könyves Kálmán Salon. On the bottom left, we see a caricature of Lajos Tihanyi's picture, Budapest. Üstökös, 21 December 1913, 4. Portrait commissions constituted an important form of art patronage in Budapest

—although in the specific case of the "Hungarian Fauves" they were less significant. Besides the youth and the lack of experience of the painters in question, there were also stylistic reasons why the pioneers of new painting could not expect to boost their income considerably from this source. Dezső Czigány was one of the few exceptions: in addition to providing him with sustenance, the portraits he made of his friends and patrons, which could rarely be described as Fauvist, also helped capture for posterity the likeness of some of the intellectuals who supported modern art. The list included Ede Kabos, Ady's friend who was the editor of Budapesti Napló and a "noble slave-driver" spurring the artist on to greater effort, as well as Béla Révész, who invented this powerful metaphor, and Endre Ady himself. Without any doubt, Lajos Tihanyi painted the period's most important series of portraits, featuring Lajos Fülep, Béla Révész, Jenő Miklós, György Bölöni and Virgil Ciaclan. The latter also deserves a mention as an art collector, as he owned paintings not only by Tihanyi but also by Róbert Berény, Bertalan Pór, Dezső Czigány and Vilmos Fémes Beck. He ran a lawyers' firm at 5 Rudolf Square (today's Jászai Mari Square), where "he also threw lively parties for the Nyolcak members."

40 Besides private individuals, we can also find corporate bodies among the Budapest collectors and art patrons, including government and municipal organizations as well as civil organizations. Because of the fundamentally experimental nature and representative character of the works produced by the "Hungarian Fauves", official patronage remained at a moderate level. The prestigious art prizes and the government and purchases by civil organizaitons usually went to the conservative artists of the Palace of Art. Apart from Kernstok, Pór and RipplRónai, who received some official recognition for a few of their early works, the representatives of the modern tendencies failed to share in that privilege.

41 Glancing through the list of prize-winners, we can immediately see that the only organization going beyond the 19th-century artistic tastes that the Palace of Art bequeathed on society was Lipótváros Casino, which supported the Nagybánya artists. The municipal government of Budapest demonstrated a much more modern taste in their art patronage activities, especially after 1906, when István Bárczy took over as mayor. Just as he tried to lend support to the liberal-thinking intelligentsia "ousted" from government offices, he also proved to be a steady supporter of the progressive tendencies in art. Ödön Márffy, who had earlier studied in Pans on a municipal grant, became the curator of the capital's art treasures in 1909 on Bárczy's initiative. The artist also received a place on the acquisition committee in charge of founding the municipal gallery of Budapest. Without a doubt, the Budapest Municipal Council was the only official sponsor of modern art, lending effective support to representatives of the most modern tendencies through purchases and public commissions. The persons in charge of new acquisitions served to guarantee the high quality of the artworks. In addition to Márffy, the list also included Bárczy's confidant, Ödön Wildner who worked for the magazine Huszadik Század; Géza Feleky, who was an art writer in his early twenties; and after 1914, Lajos Fülep. On the strength of their endorsement, the municipal gallery acquired paintings by Dezső Czigány, Károly Kernstok, Bertalan Pór, Lajos Tihanyi, Ödön Márffy and Sándor Galimberti and the sculptures of Márk Vedres, Ö. Fülöp Beck, and Vilmos Fémes Beck.

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