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 - PARIS - KRISZTINA PASSUTH: Hungarian Artists at the Salons of Paris
KRISZTINA PASSUTH Hungarian Artists at the Salons of Paris 1. Salon d'Automne When Salon d'Automne was established in 1903 (two years before the first group exhibition of the Fauves), the idea behind it was to offer the modernist artists an opportunity to realize their ideas and to help them distinguish their movement from the traditional tendencies of the conservative salons. Its founder, Frantz Jourdan, tried to rally the innovators —artists and designers alike —around a common cause. He wanted to create a platform for the beginners, the neglected and the misunderstood, so as to offer them the same chance that the established artists enjoyed, and also to ensure that the painful and humiliating initial period forced upon the innovators —during which time they still had no access to exhibition venues —could be shortened.' Although in reality the Salon d'Automne was not always able to live up to its noble mission, it did play an important part —especially in the first decade —by creating a new alternative, which was different even from the Salon des Indépendants and which countless artists, innovators and non-innovators alike, could benefit from. Eugène Carrière agreed to act as Honorary President, and it was largely due to his enthusiasm that the established organizations were soon obliged to accept the new institute as equal. The Salon soon became extremely popular, occasionally displaying more than 2000 works at a time. The Salon covered the fields of painting, sculpture, graphics, "arts décoratifs" or applied art, and architecture; in addition, there were literary and musical performances and, after 1920, cinematic shows. Sándor Ziffer: Boats on the Seine, 1911. Cat. No. 285. Verso of Sandor Ziffer s Boats on The Seine, with a sketch outlining the arrangement of the artist's paintings (Salon des Indépendants, 1911)
