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

Cité Falguière, old studios Photo: Attila Batár, 2005 scapes of Collioure (Cat. No. 296), and they never contrasted their reds and greens as wildly and as dynamically as did Derain or Vlaminck (Cat. No. 306), for example. The patches of paint on the Hungarian artists' canvases do not come to life as much as they do in the case of the French painters; (except for Rippl-Rónai) they do not suggest that the paint has just been splattered on the canvas straight out of the tube. The Hungarian artists are more rooted in reality; they do not fly as freely into abstraction as Matisse did in his landscapes of Collioure. The Hungarians were neither as "wild", nor as radical as their French colleagues. In addition to the Nagybánya tradition, Gauguin's influence is also strongly evident in their compositions. The decorative contours of black and blue, the patchwork-like arrangement and the strange, transparent pink shade, which showed up in almost every single landscape by Hungarian Fauves, all came with Gauguin's compliments. When all things are considered, it is just as impossible to talk about a homogeneous Hungarian Fauve style distinct from French Fauves as it is to talk about a homogeneous French Fauve style. Even if we compare the compositions of only the bestknown Fauves, such as Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck or Braque, we shall find clearly distinct tendencies. The Hungarians did not differ more from the French, than the French differed from each other. Ultimately, beyond the historical context and the stylistic parallels it is the quality of the work the Hungarian painters produced which justifies the use of the term "Hungarian Fauvism". If the Hungarian Fauves had functioned merely as the epigones of the French painters, then nothing would have justified the international interest that they had elicited. In any case, the assessment of their art would not be possible purely on Hungarian criteria. It appears that, to a certain degree, they were recognized as Fauves in both French and international journalism already during the period in question, (with regard to Matisse's circle and the Hungarian artists exhibiting in Paris,) although they were largely overlooked in art historical studies written later. The first critics to recognize them included Georges Duthuit and Gaston Diehl, who repeatedly called attention to Béla Czóbel's significance as one of the earliest Fauves. When Matisse's son-in-law, Georges Duthuit, discussed Czóbel's importance, he was probably still influenced by Matisse's views and sympathies. As to Gaston Diehl, he appraised the art and the personality of Czóbel in his book on Fauvism, which was one of the first comprehensive treatises on the subject, presenting the Hungarian artist as the last Fauve alive. He even published some of Czóbel's work in reproduction.

10 Later on these circumstances once again faded into oblivion, right until the monumental Paris show of 1999, but here the importance of the Hungarian artists was eclipsed by the prominent role assigned to the Russians, Scandinavians and Germans. Rue Campagne Première, house with studios. Photo: Attila Batár, 2005 Although Matisse's school unquestionably influenced the development of Hungarian Fauvism after 1908, the latter was never a mere offshoot of the Paris private academy. Hungarian Fauvism had already been in full swing two years before Matisse's school opened its gates. (The situation was different with the Fauve artists from Norway or the United States, who assimilated the approach while attending the school, rather than developing their own concept independently.) In fact, the period before 1908 was the most important chapter in the history of the Hungarian movement, as the young Hungarian artists turned their backs on the earlier Nagybánya approach precisely in reaction to the influence of Fauvism. The latter enabled them to reject the universal validity of Nagybánya plein-air back in 1906, and they did that on the spot. This event, which was reported slightly differently by the various eyewitnesses, constituted the first and the most forceful entry of the generation of artists, who later became known as Neos, rather than Fauves. The fact that the young artists, who rallied around Béla Czóbel (along with Béla Iványi Grünwald, the only teacher who sympathized with their program), confronted the older masters and the conservative artistic ideas they represented by making, perhaps even a little too forcefully, a stand-out, already implied the promise of the emergence of a determined and dynamic art group. However, this promise was never fulfilled. These young artists never organized themselves into a group, not even for the duration of a single exhibition, which was practically how the French Fauves formed their short-lived group. The Hungarians either had no intention to organize themselves into a group, or they proved unequal to the task. In any case, they lacked a truly charismatic figure, the Hungarian equivalent of a Matisse in Paris, whom the critics could all name as the leader, the "fauve-chef". Struck by the freshness of Czóbel's compositions at first sight, the young artists came to the conclusion that it was no longer possible to continue painting in the old familiar style of Nagybánya. Since it became apparent that Czóbel was the person best suited for the role of the leader, the young Nagybánya painters rallied around him. Evidently, however, this role did not appeal to Czóbel at all. The impact he had on the others, along with the powerful attraction of the movement that crystallized around him, left him cold. He decided to quit the home scene and return to Paris. The Hungarian Fauves were left without a universally recognized leader until as late as 1909. In late 1909 Károly Kernstok became the pivotal figure of a genuinely functioning group, Nyolcak (The Eight), whose members were now uniting in Budapest. But since the topic of the present paper is the history of the Hungarian Fauves, Kernstok's role as a leader is immaterial. The courtyard of the Montparnasse Museum with the old workshops. Photo: Attila Batár, 2005