Gyergyádesz László, ifj.: Kecskemét és a magyar zsidó képzőművészet a 20. század első felében (Kecskemét, 2014)

Jegyzetek

stage. The painting (Plate 9) of Béla Czóbel (1883- 1976) in the Kecskemét collection is a good example of that since it had been painted in 1905 one year before - according to a legendary-like, anecdotal story - he brought back his pictures from Paris at the age of 23 and showing them to his fellows he initiated the so called “Neoist” movement, “...the Landscape depicting a detail of a park of a castle is the first one where the effect of the painting of Nagybánya dynamically stands out. Czóbel reflects the magnificent gaiety of the nature in summer time with the visual perception of the impressionists, however, the picture with the broken brush-strokes and the clashing of colours bears the marks of the Post-Impressionism as the precursor of the parallel evolving Neoist painting of Nagybánya.” The painting of Dezső Czigány (1883-1938) also donated by Marcell Nemes - similarly to the Czóbel picture - presents an earlier phase of the given oeuvre. The Study of a Man (Plate 10) was painted in 1906 in summer when after returning from Paris he again worked in Nagybánya (independently from the free school) when his chosen master was not Hollósy any more, but Károly Ferenczy whose strong influence can be confirmed by the work. (Ferenczy was his figure drawing and painting teacher in the autumn, during those weeks when he was a special first year student of the School of Fine Arts.) Fortunately our collection possesses pictures of Czigány from other sources so one of the most precious pieces of our permanent exhibition was given to the museum by Zsófia Dénes ex-fiancée and friend of Endre Ady (Plate 11). She took off the painting from her wall in 1985 on the occasion of the exhibition in Budapest (State Gorkij Library) celebrating her 100th birthday when it was displayed publicly for the first time. Then she wrote about the story of the painting as follows: “Czigány painted many well-known portraits of Ady. The charcoal drawing in the first edition of Blood and Gold was created on the basis of this first portrait. Ady fancied this self portrait made in sepia so much that asked Czigány to give it to him. Czigány gladly dedicated on the top corner of the painting: »to Ady Czigány Dezső, 1907.« This particular Ady-portrait was unknown to art historians up to the present.” It can also be connected to his friendship with Ady that he turned a Calvinist during the same year, although born as the son of Ignác Wimmer, a Jewish tinsmith of Budapest. (Czóbel was also converted to Roman Catholic around that time, and István Csók became his godfather.) Fie had tried to hide another “evidence” of his origin already seven years earlier in the form

of a fairly unusual change of his name: “the adoption of a Flungarian name, »Magyarization« was a widespread assimilative strategy among the Flungarian Jews, however, the young artist being rebellious chose demonstrating his autonomosity an even more despised minority the Gypsies who were the lowest class of the Flungarian Social Hierarchy. ” The mu-seum of Kecskemét only at the beginning of our century could acquire - thanks to a compatriot living in America - the third here displayed painting of Czigány. The Laughing Self Portrait (page 48) is one the nearly 70 self portraits of the painter - who was keen on Rembrandt - in which he started playing roles around 1910. Czigány disguised himself this time as a simple swain, and there are more variations known between 1912 and 1914.

Nemes gave two works of Bertalan Pór (1880- 1964) to the collection of Kecskemét. The painting of 1 907 (Plate 13) is one of the still lifes whose occurrences are relatively rare in the oeuvre. Like most of his contemporaries in his case as well, the genre is a demonstrative means of - though in a much more moderate form - the studies in Paris. Fie first visited the city between 1901 and 1903 (Julian Academy Jean-Paul Laurens) and later in the autumn of 1906 and during the first months of 1907 when he got to know the painting of Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse and the Fauves. In late spring he went on a study-tour to Italy with his flatmate in Paris Róbert Berény (the grant of the tour was financed by the National Hungarian Israelite Public Funds). His main genre was the portrait from the beginning. The Self Portrait of Kecskemét (Plate 12) was painted directly after the monumental group portrait titled the Family (1909-1910) which is the most often cited moment of the oeuvre. Nevertheless, there are not many similarities between the two works and the often analyzed influence of Giotto can only be seen in the grisaille technique of the painting.

Six (!) members of the group called the Eight at the exhibitions between 1909 and 1914 were of Jewish origin (and three external members). “However, in this progressive circle of art as among the free-thinkers sympathizing with the group, the role of the Jewish extraction faded away since they all were the upholders of an international, irreligious, but ethically acceptable collective ideal, and in its case the references of »national« or »tribal« as well as the issue of Jewish or non-Jewish were irrelevant." To have a broader conception of the topic let us include the remark of Péter Molnos: “The dominance of Jewish people can be considered noteworthy, because Jewish artists in such

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