A Kassák Múzeum kiállítási katalógusai, kisebb kiadványai

Buday György fametszetei

Buday, George, E. (Kolozsvár, Transylvania, April 7, 1907 - June 12, 1990, Coulsdon, England). He started his studies in the Presbyterian College of Kolozsvár. From 1924 he lived in Szeged, became Doctor of Laws there in 1933. In 1932 he established the community of young artists entitled College of Art of Szeged, University. He made study trips to London, Liverpool and Rome. Between 1935 and 1937 he was the lector in graphic arts at the University of Szeged. Between 1930 and 1937 he made series of woodcut illustrations to Hungarian folk tales and ballads and to the works of 19th and 20th century Hungarian poets and writers - János Arany, Imre Madách, Anzelm Károly Berezeli, Benő Karácsony, Miklós Radnóti, Áron Tamási. In his woodcuts he followed the example of Béla Bartók and wanted to synthetize folk culture and the avantgarde, and express their social message. He participated in the international Goethe-exhibition in 1932 in Leipzig, in the Triennial of Milan in 1933 and 1936, in the international woodcut-exhibition in Warszaw in 1936. In 1937 his woodcuts to Folkballads of the Nation Székely and to Mauriac's The Life of Jesus won the graphic grand prix of the Paris world exhibition. In 1936-1937 he worked in Rome, in 1938 he settled in London. The British Museum bought 47 works of him and he was elected associate member of the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers. He became a regular participant of the Royal Society's graphic shows. In 1939, to the request of the New York Limited Editions Club he made a series of woodcuts to Fimon of Athens as part of a de luxe Shakespeare-edition. After the outbreak of the war he took part in the work of Hungarian immigrants in England. His woodcut Britannia 1940-41 made for the special spring edition of the Times Literary Supplement, became the symbol of Britain's struggle against fascism. From 1941 to 1944 he was editor of the BBC's Hungarian broadcast, from 1947 to 1949 director of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in London. In 1953, at the coronation of Elisabeth II., he prepared the official broad-sheet. In 1953 he was elected ordinary member of the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers, and awarded the title Royal Engraver. In 1954 was published his book The History of the Christmas Card. 1 le made woodcut-portraits of classic writers for the Penguin Classics series and the publications of the Oxford and Cambridge University Press. He illustrated the volumes of English, Persian, Hindi poets, made woodcuts to the editions of the works of Aragon and Joyce, to Arab folk tales. In 1970-72 he made the portraits of 25 Hungarian poets for the antology planned under the title The Poetry of Hungary, 1200-1970. For their birthday he made a portrait of the typographer and historian Harry Carter (1971), the poet Sir John Betjeman (1973), the dramatist Sean O'Casey (1980), a triple portrait of the three leading drama writers of the Abbey Theatre of Dublin: W. B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, J. M. Synge (1980). He illustrated Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon with a woodcut series (1980). After 1967 his works were shown in Hungary at several individual and group exhibitions. In 1982 his permanent exhibition was opened in Szeged, on may 21st 1990 he was elected the town's honorary citizen. 31