Bakos Katalin - Manicka Anna szerk.: Párbeszéd fekete-fehérben, Lengyel és magyar grafika 1918–1939 (MNG, Warszawa–Budapest, 2009)

III. KATALÓGUS - 2. HAGYOMÁNYKERESÉS - - Folklór - - Hétköznapi falusi élet

publication of the Young Artists' College of Szeged. Buday's exceptional empathy and imagination presents the hero of folk tales, the poor man in search of happiness in whose struggles the audience of the 1920s could recognize the poetic image of their own desires and social fighting. In addition to Szeged, the Ady Society of Debrecen was another important centre of intellectuals including the movement of the "rural writers" interested in social questions, first of all the state of the peasantry. Kálmán Gáborjáni Szabó born here returned to teach in the town after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1936 he devoted a 10-sheet series to rural work, the life of the peasants. The subtly elaborated wood engravings show no trace of Buday's critical tone or dramatic tension. However deeply compassionate they may be, his prints depict the work cycle of the peasants in the fixed tempo of rural life as part of an order of eternal validity. Along with the legacy of expressionism, his works also display the conclusions drawn from the period of the Rome scholarship in the elevated, almost ecstatic tone and the harmony of the calm rhythm of the composition. Rural life was the theme of the Transylvanian graphic artists also studying with Viktor Olgyai. Inherent in Imre Nagy's works is an intimate relationship with the landscape and peasant work. His typical working method is well exemplified by Harvesters' Lunch. After making a sketch of a few lines, Nagy went on drawing with the chisel. A sweeping composition arose with the negative forms shooting into the black picture field like a shaft of light. The powerful black and white contrast is based on a secure foundation of drawing, and vigour is coupled with harmony. In 1931 Nándor Lajos Varga took the chair of the graphic faculty at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts. As a devoted teacher, he wrote graphic manuals and collected his students' works in yearbooks. The 193334 selection includes works by Szilárd Iván and Mihály Patay on rural themes, characterized by enormous expressive power despite great economy. After graduating as a mechanical engineer, Béla Gy. Szabó active in Kolozsvár [Cluj, today Romania] studied in Nándor Lajos Varga's class as a special student. Gy. Szabó's favourite genre was the book without words, a peculiar form of the graphic series. His maturation into an artist and wanderings are presented in the Book of Peregrinations, while the sheets of Liber Miserorum depict the misery of the outskirts. In Embrace the artist utilized the decorative potentialities of the woodcut in emphasizing the costumes and setting. Apart from the historical and cultural traditions of its towns, Transylvania was an important source of the common Hungarian culture through its folklore. The folk material collected by the ethnographers and the artists of the Gödöllő colony became integrated in Hungarian high culture. When the area was annexed to Romania after World War I, the cultural life suffered an immense loss. Ferenc Lajos compiled his album of 1 2 linocuts showing the Transylvanian landscape, villages, and cemeteries with the gentle decorative lines typical of the early 20th century. When as a result of the Vienna Award northern Transylvania was returned to Hungary in 1940, there were state scholarships to encourage artists to go on Transylvanian study trips. Nándor Nagy spent several summers along the river Nyárád. Dyke in Nyárád reflects the harmony of the idyllic landscape and contemplating man. After a lengthy stay in Transylvania, Ferend Bordás compiled an album of woodcuts made after his drawings in 1943. The traditional theme and the minutely detailed representation are combined with vantage points introduced by modern photography. AM: Folklore, which means "wisdom of the people", embraces various genres of oral literature and vocal, musical and choreographic relics of the past. Generally, we hardly ever deal with authentic folklore, passed byword of mouth. Mostly, we willingly reach for a folklore that is not our own when we are trying to build up our own enfeebled identity: then the old folk wisdom is there to guarantee the maintaining of tradition and relying on the most ancient, well-tried patterns. The regulatory