Fraternity-Testvériség, 2008 (86. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
2008-07-01 / 3. szám
FEATURE HUNGARIAN ART REACHES NEW AUDIENCE IN AMERICA BY KATHY A. MEGYERI ART OPENING SANTA FE, NM HUNGARIAN MASTERWORKS From Impressionism to Modernism Colorado collectors and Hungarian art enthusiasts Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III are introducing American audiences to Hungarian artists. Their second public showing, “Hungarian Mas- terworks, From Impressionism to Modernism,” was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on April 4th. The exhibition presented approximately 105 paintings, prints and drawings from their collection. Two years ago, they introduced Colorado audiences to part of their collection, and with encouragement and loans from the collection of former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, Nancy G. Brinker, their exhibition consisted of about sixty paintings, drawings, and prints from 1890 to 1956. In 2006, Curator Shanna Shelby applauded the first showing at the Emmanuel Gallery, the art museum on the University of Colorado’s Denver campus. This exhibition coincided with the opening of the new Daniel Libeskind-designed wing of the Denver Art Museum, so many visitors from the art communities around the world were in Denver and could attend the exhibition. Entitled “Treasures Revealed: The Art of Hungary, 1890-1956, it was hailed as “one of the finest selections of Hungarian works of art found in the United States and Hungary.” At that time, Wiltse and Brown teamed with Ambassador Brinker to bring the two collections together to commemorate the 50lh Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Shelby praised the collectors for their tireless enthusiasm in sharing Hungary’s art. Steven Mansbach, Professor of History of Twentieth-Century Art at the University of Maryland in College Park, praised the quality of Hungarian art as presented in the exhibition. As he wrote in their catalogue, “The history of modem art has been significantly shaped by generations of Hungarian artists, designers, photographers and architects. Hungarian creative genius brought forth innovative styles and revolutionary theories that stamped the twentieth-century. Hungary’s painters, sculptors, photographers, and designers helped to provide the forms, define the meanings, and develop the teaching methods that today we readily associate with progressive culture.” He also praised the efforts of the three collectors to bring Hungarian art to the attention of American audiences. The expansiveness of Hungarian art was again demonstrated in the Wiltse-Brown collection featured in Santa Fe. This was the first time for many Americans, like me, to see works from the avant-garde period of the first thirty-five years of the twentieth century. Artists like Dezső Czi- gany, Odon Marffy, Joszef Rippl- Ronai, Janos Mattis-Teutsch, Janos Vaszary, Lajos Kassak, Bela Ivanyi-Grunwald, and Adolf Fen- yes are not household names to most, but thanks to the largesse of the two collectors, these artists are now on view. They reflect Hungary’s complex modem history with its periods of freedom and openness which is contrasted to its eras of inwardness and intolerance. Hungary’s tumultuous history of a monarchy, right-wing dictatorships and Communism is represented in these works which were hidden under 50 years of isolation after World War 11. Changes came with the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. No wonder Professor Mansbach writes in the catalog, “This art can rightfully be perceived as exhibiting Hungary’s cultural triumphs and its political tribulations.” Wiltse and Brown are among the most knowledgeable, passionate, and personable art collectors 1 have met. They have traveled to 16 FALL 2008
