Kopócsy Anna: Új színben, Rózsa Miklós és művészönarckép-gyűjteménye 1932–1943 (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2007/2)

Szőnyi István: Rózsa Miklós arcképe, 1937 (kat. 27.) By way of an agreement with the art-dealer Henrik Tamás, Miklós Rózsa also aided by his son-in-law Imre Oltványi-Ártinger - arranged for a series of one-man shows for KUT artists from the December of 1928. In the meanwhile, he also put up group exhibitions at the Tamás Gallery, which could be regarded as minor KUT exhibitions. At these shows, the selection of artists manifested a far more unified picture than the more heterogeneous major, representative KUT exhibitions held at the Nemzeti Szalon [National Salon]. The Tamás Gallery exhibitions were expressly organised for a private sphere establishing itself and flourishing at the time, capable of and interested in purchasing contemporary art. The power struggles behind the scenes, however, brought about the consolidation of the positions of conservative artists, which was also enhanced by the divisions within the modernist camp. Finally, Rózsa was isolated, losing the backing of the majority of the KUT membership, and thus resigned from his directorship of KUT in 1932. As was customary in such cases at the time, the artists he was closest to each presented him with a self-portrait on the occasion. The collection, exhibited for the first time now, continually increased in time. Chronologically, the last picture in the collection is a portrait of Miklós Rózsa by István Szőnyi made in 1943 - a symbolic closure of the KUT self-portrait collection. Not only did it mean the last picture in the series of portraits, but also the termination of a life work, for Rózsa, unable to withstand the tribulations of the Second World War, died before its end in the January of 1945. However, his work and memory lived on. In May 1 945, one of the first genuinely free, modernist exhibitions was put up under the curatorship of Ernő Kállai to commemorate him. Pátzay Pál: Oltványi-Ártinger imréné, Rózsa Lilian portréja, 1928 körül (kat. 38.)