Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)
ANNUAL REPORT - A 2007. ÉV - MÁRTON OROSZ: Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky: Masterpieces of the Swiss Rupf Collection
PICASSO, KLEE, KANDINSKY: MASTERPIECES OF THE SWISS RUPF COLLECTION 26 October, 2007 - 27 January, 2008 Exhibition concept: Susanne Friedli, Matthias Frehner, and Judit Geskó Curator: Judit Geskó Assistants: Mónika Kumin and Márton Orosz PICASSO. KLEE, KANDINSZKIJ. A SVÁJCI RUPF-GYÜJTEMÉNY REMEKMŰVEI [PICASSO. KLEE, KANDINSKY: MASTERPIECES OFTHE SWISS RUPF COLLECTION I. ED. |UDIT GESKÓ, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BUDAPEST, 2007, HUNGARIAN TEXT. 303 PP.. 97 COL. AND 93 B&W ILLS.. ISBN 978 963 7063 45 9 The close professional collaboration that has been maintained for the past decade between the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts and the Kunstmuseum Bern made it possible to bring one of the most important private collections of classical avant-garde art to Budapest after the collection's international debut in the Musée de Grenoble. With the help of the famous foundation established in 1954 by Hermann and Margit Rupf —a married couple who once ran a haberdashery in the heart of the Swiss capital —the collection of some three hundred masterpieces found its way into the Kunstmuseum Bern and since then some six hundred contemporary works have been added to it. The Hungarian curator of the exhibition selected ninety-three of the works of art, which had been made with the most diverse techniques, to be exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts' two basement "pyramids". Instead of following the rigid order of acquisition, the material was arranged only partly following the chronological order and the works were placed in an exciting semantic context. The majority of the pieces from the collection —which in respect to their size and techniques employed in their making would blend in with the intimate interiors of a Swiss middle-class home —were mostly purchased directly from the artists' studios, or virtually off the "easel", by Hermann Rupf, who was blessed with a talent for spotting valuable works. Somebody who played a determining role in the development of Rupf 's taste in art was his friend, the famous collector of German origin, Daniel Henry Kahnweiler, with wTiom he formed a life-long friendship during the years of his apprenticeship in a financial institution in Frankfurt. When Kahnweiler opened his Parisian gallery near the Madeleine in 1907, Rupf became one of the art dealer's first clients. He laid down the foundations for his collection by purchasing one work each by the French Fauves (Othon Friesz, André Derain). Then, after visiting Picasso's workshop on several occasions, the Cubist
