Nagy Ildikó szerk.: Nagybánya művészete, Kiállítás a nagybányai művésztelep alapításának 100. évfordulója alkalmából (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 1996/1)

Szücs György: Nagybánya - változó időben

Nagybánya - in Changing Times GYÖRGY SZŰCS /

On occasion of the centenary of the art% ists' colony in Nagybánya, it becomes even more urgent task to define as precisely as possible the essence of a cluster of phenomena tagged self-evidently with the word "Nagybánya" in everyday speech and professional lingo alike. On the one hand, one might gain the impression that every fundamental element of this topic is well known, for even a decade may pass without the utterance of a single statement on Nagybánya which aims at general validity and provoks further investigation. On the other hand, however, "immersion" in the sea of documents suggests that our knowledge is partial and unbalanced and rests on the variation of a limited number of sources. I am using the term cluster of phenomena intentionally, since in my opinion, the intricate web of problems related to Nagybánya ought to be viewed from the very beginning as a dynamic model "panned" in time (history). The guiding thread to be adhered to is Huizinga's principle to which he also submitted himself: "A good definition must be pithy, that is, the concepts must be captured succinctly but at the same time exactly and wholly. A definition circumscribes the meaning of a certain word, and the word serves to designate a certain phenomenon. A definition must contain, must summarize the whole phenomenon. Should essential components of the phenomenon fall out of the definition, a mistake has been made. Yet a definition need not give account of details."

1 Research into "Nagybánya art" has up to now adopted either a linear or a family-tree model. The first is dominated by an attitude responding to the momentary progression along the axis of Munich (precedent) - Nagybánya (synthesis) - Paris (impulses) - Budapest ("post-Nagybánya"). The second implies a method which traces everything back to Nagybánya, although it maps its ramifications more thoroughly. There is less awareness that the "absolete" trends did not disappear later, either, and that exponents of any older generation worked parallel with the younger ones. A definite station in the "development" is ascribed nonchalantly to the names of decisive personalities such as János Thorma, and the glory thus attained illumines all their lifework independently of the actual quality the phases of a given lifework display. In addition, there are "condensed" oeuvres ignoring an artist's pre- or post-Nagybánya periods. At any rate, the history of Nagybánya is a complex of at least three superimposed layers: the biographies, the complete works and the writings. The texture which is now thick, now thinning, displays nodes, intersections of decisive threads. What makes the articulation of the source material more difficult is the historical legacy that "obligates" the researchers to do their utmost to earn international approval for Hungarian art. This attitude, abounding with biases, is followed as if by its shadow by an equally one-sided approach which starts from the premise that, compared to the ideally developing centre, the peripheries - i.e. the East European region cannot produce autonomous art, its art only being valid as an appendix to the West European artistic processes. An epitome, a symbolical representation of both approaches is Béla Lázár's novel On a New Trail (1909), an imprint of a guilty historical conscience balancing between real chance and ideals. Though most of the personae can be identified behind the pseudonyms (Fülöp László, Pál Szinyei Merse, József RipplRónai, etc.), others appear under their real names (Mihály Munkácsy); the protagonist (Ákos Sándorffy) represents the type of artist who can meet the highest international standards, exhibiting in Paris with the greatest, while still becoming, back home the paragon of genuine Hungarian art free from external influences. The date alludes to the founding of The Circle of Hungarian Impressionists and Naturalists (MIENK) the protagonist, align-ing himself with Szinyei and the Nagybánya artists, sets the goal of creating the synthesis of Hungarian art as defined by the architect Lechner, in league with his young friends captured by plein air painting in Munich and Paris.

2 The situation is romantic, the central character just like Mór Jókai's mining engineer-inventor hero, Iván Berend, in Black Diamonds - could have existed, but didn't. There were, however, some personages who had the talent and opportunity to unfold their self-contained but internationally valid art. Lázár tried to write on Hungarian soil a key novel, like Emile