Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)

The Year 2002

CORNEILLE RETURNS MAY 16 - SEPTEMBER 1, 2002. IONIC PYRAMID CURATOR OF THE EXHIBITION! FERENC TÓTH Corneille, one of the most significant and internationally acknowledged Dutch artists of the past few decades, turned 80 years old in the summer of 2002. He began his artistic career in Budapest, where he spent four months in 1947 after concluding his studies. In contrast to the conservative milieu of his home, he encountered a much more lively and progressive atmosphere here. He formed friendships and working relationships with the members of the European School, then the determining artistic group of Hungary, who introduced him to surrealism and to the more recent trends of the European avant-garde. His first one-man show in the exhibition hall of the European School consisted of the works created in Hungary. After his return to Holland, in 1948, Corneille became one of the founders of the COBRA group, which joined Dutch, Belgian and Danish artists and became one of the most dynamic and influential international groups of the following years. Beyond the knowledge of the actual facts, the particulars of the relationship between Corneille and European School, and the results manifested in his work, have remained almost completely obscure until recently, when the early works were unexpectedly exhibited in large numbers, surprising the Hungarian and international art life. In 1997, the Elisabeth den Bieman de Haas Gallery opened to the general public a collection comprising some fifty works mainly created during the four months in Hungary. Early in 2002, the Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst in Amstelveen organized a double exhibition. This was an occasion for the successful introduction of the European School to the Dutch public and, linked with this event, for the holding of an exhibition entitled Corneille, Hei Hongaarse Avontuur (Corneille, the Hungarian Adventure). As a continuation of this exhibition, the Museum of Fine Arts organized the exhibition that put on show a cross section of the entire oeuvre of Corneille. On the occasion of the anniversary, the works created in Hungary were shown to the audience again, but now embedded in the context of the entire life-work. On the initiative of the Museum of Fine Arts, the monograph on the events of 1947, Corneille uisszatér Corneille is back