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 - GYÖRGY SZÜCS:Dissonance or New Harmony? The Art of the Nagybánya "Neos"

GYÖRGY SZŰCS Dissonance or New Harmony? The Art of the Nagybánya "Neos" While he was lecturing on the modern history of European thought, Carl E. Schorske, one of the best-known American researchers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, had to face up to the unpleasant truth as early as the 1940s that the previously forged historical categories could be applied with more or less general validity only up until the second half of the 19

th century, and that following the fragmentation of universal culture, one only had separate analytical notions and definitions at one's disposal for the description of various groups of phenomena and genres, etc.

1 To use Schorske's expression, the "ruthless centrifuge of change" led to the further division of the categories, which meant that the description of "modernism" in fine arts, along with its conceptual comprehension, was only possible with the introduction of partially valid definitions. As we move into the 20* century, applying the broadest conception of modernity that could still be taken in with one glance, we can draw up an ordered list of the various movements, from Realism to Surrealism.

2 However, we shall find that the isms crammed into the decade preceding the First World War actually fade nto one another: their hierarchical relationships have, to this day, remained uncertain and their precise separation

—on account of the concrete works' refusal to conform to the theories

—keeps running into difficulties, in the practice of both the contemporaries and the subsequent generations. "There is something amiss about this unfortunate word 'modernity'," Károly Sztrakoniczky concluded in 1912. "Today everything is modern, just as everything was Art Nouveau four or five years ago. The dress is modern, the sport, the technology and Pál Szinyei-Merse are modern, and so is Károly Kernstok."

3 For lack of a better alternative, researchers needed to reconstruct the circumstances, under which the various components of modern painting had been born, pointing out both the conceptual differences, which existed not only between countries and periods but sometimes also between individual art historians, and the different interpretations, whether they were put forward by contemporaries or gained acceptance

—mostly by chance

—later on. "Everywhere in Europe, Neo and Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism and the rest were flying about in the air, left, right and centre; one almost had the impression that the movements were more important than art itself. Nobody was able to The Main Square in Nagybánya, 7 906. Postcard capture the characteristic traits of the latter in a clear-cut formula, the kind that is used in chemistry or mathematics. Therefore, it was easy either to enlarge or to narrow down the concepts and this was exactly what people did, just as it suited them best," Károly Lyka, the period's competent recorder and active shaper recalls.

4 The Students and the Young Pretenders at Nagybánya Before attempting to uncover the theoretical roots of the definitions of "Neo-lmpressionism" and "Neoism", and before trying to shed light on their genealogical origins, as well as on the difference between their usage in Hungary and worldwide, we should outline the main events in the history of the Nagybánya artists' colony from 1905-1906 onwards. The second chapter in the history of Hungary's modern painting, broadly the period when the new generation of painters assimilating the Parisian influences came onto the scene, was itself pregnant with complex processes. By the time the Budapest audience developed an appreciation for it, the Nagybánya artists' colony, sometimes referred to as the "Hungarian Barbizon",

5 had already passed its peak: after Károly Ferenczy's retrospective exhibition in 1903,

6 the Nagybánya artists could cause little surprise to the exhibition-goers of Budapest. "Since we have