Passuth Krisztina – Szücs György – Gosztonyi Ferenc szerk.: Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2006/1)
AT HOME AND ABROAD - KRISZTINA PASSUTH: Wild Beasts of Hungary Meet Fauves in France
Henri Matisse: Collioure, rue du Soleil, 1905. Cat. No. 296. Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, © Succession H. Matisse I HUNQART 2006, Photo D.H. academies and private schools; the growing role of urban culture; and the impact of recently deceased artists, such as Gauguin. Similarly momentous was the influence of Post-Impressionism, most notably the artistic concept of Cézanne, but also of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Matisse's large-scale composition, painted in 1904 and entitled "Luxe, calme et volupté" was still conceived in the spirit of Pointillism. And even in 1905, he captured the harbour of Avail in a Pointillist style. As late as the summer of 1905 André Derain also painted a number of landscapes which were vibrant with tiny dots of colours in testimony to the impact of Pointillism. At the same time, the peculiar laws of sculpture also manifested themselves in painting. These widely different approaches became evident almost simultaneously, first of all in France, but they had their parallels in Hungary too. New insights and influences showed neither a clear pattern nor a seemingly logical or chronological order; indeed, quite the opposite was true. Sometimes complementing each other and sometimes competing against one another, these factors combined to form a dynamic and ceaselessly changing mix from the first year of the century right until the explosion of 1905. According to the most recent research, Jack Flam's latest catalogue included, 2 French Fauvism had a very short history: by all accounts, it had been over by the autumn of 1907. Hungarian Fauvism took off in earnest only in the summer of 1906, when its stylistic marks made a powerful appearance in the works of several painters simultaneously. On the other hand, Hungarian Fauvism had a longer lifespan, the end of which could not be determined as accurately as it was the case with French Fauvism. Giving a Name What we call Fauvism today, and what people called Fauvism back in the old days after 1905, have absolutely nothing to do with the artists' intentions, as the artists themselves were apparently not giving much thought either to having joint exhibitions or to defining a common identity. They failed to look upon themselves either as a group or as representatives of one movement. The term "fauves", meaning "wilds" or "wild beasts", was given to them by contemporary critics (who were, therefore, responsible for this "epitheton ornans")3 Instead of the theme, content, or iconography,
