Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)

ANNUAL REPORT 2004 - A 2004. ÉV - TEMPORARY EXEIIBITIONS - IDŐSZAKI KIÁLLÍTÁSOK - ILONA FEKETE: Alberto Giacometti's Life-Work Exhibition

periods, and Eszter Földi that after 1895 - since this shed at least as much light on the relations and changes in approach in Hungary as on the French artists themselves. In parallel with this, the essay written by curator Judit Geskó and art historian Péter Molnos comprises the greatest measure of new aspects and data. This study focuses on the collectors of French artworks in Hungary, and the circumstances of collecting. The profiles of individual prominent personalities, such as Count Gyula Andrássy, Adolf Kohner or Ferenc Hatvány are clearly distinct and stand out from the rest. In connection with collecting itself, we gain a wealth of new information, just as in the corresponding chapter in the Parisian Cézanne catalogue, with the difference being that there, the number of French collectors was much greater, and in the majority of cases only a brief survey could be read. With the Hungarian catalogue, the simultaneous approach from various angles of the reception of Impressionist paintings in Hungary becomes tangible and reveals the complex network that made possible the Hungarian acceptance of Impressionism, if a bit delayed, nevertheless, in the first years of the twentieth century. In the light of this research, to all intents and purposes, the Budapest presentation of Impressionist painting gains a much greater meaning and significance, as in this case, it is not only a part of distant French art history, but also a contemporaneous Hungarian (art) history. And so, we owe thanks first and foremost to the editor of the catalogue, Judit Geskó, then to the illustrious French and Hungarian staff of authors, and last but not least, for the exceptionally high quality of the exhibition catalogue, Vince Publishing. And we eagerly await the continuation. KRISZTINA PASSUTH ALBERTO GIACOMETTI'S LIFE-WORK EXHIBITION 23 March15 June 2004 Curator: Anna Bálványos Christian Klemm, Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, ed. Anna Bálványos, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 2004, 299 pp., Hungarian and English, 84 col. and 12 b&w. ills., ISBN 963 7441 98 0 The Alberto Giacometti life-work exhibition in the Museum of Fine Arts in actual fact came about with thanks to a fortunate stroke of luck: it was due to the renovations of the Kunsthaus Zurich, to be the final home of the rich collection of the Giacometti Foundation, who lent the representative selection for the duration of their construction. The selection of some sixty artworks from Zurich was further enriched by pieces from numerous private collections and other museums. The fifty-six sculptures, seventeen paintings and fifteen drawings on display rendered the oeuvre of the Swiss-Italian Alberto Giacometti visible in its entirety for the first time in Hungary. The artworks were put on display in the museum's two lower-level exhibition halls, the Ionic and Doric Pyramid Halls, in chronological order: in the former were the pre1945 works, while in the latter the compositions following World War II were shown.