Benedek Katalin: Perlrott Csaba Vilmos (1880-1955 alkotói pályájának főbb állomásai (Békéscsaba, 2005)

Csaba Vilmos PERLROTT (Békéscsaba, 1880 - Budapest 1955) Csaba Vil mos Perlrott is one of the innovators defining the „language" of Hungarian painting. So far, there was no book that could illustrate properly his imaginative and colorful oeuvre to have been published in Hungary or elsewhere. Perlorott was a conscientious European painter, widely traveled and much exhibited, through the personality and art of whom we can accurately follow the new thoughts and ideas of his age worth discovering. The first part of his life, the most exciting period in the decades defining 20th century art as such, Perlrott spent in the significant artistic centers of Europe. He was eyewitness, receiver and spiritual exporter of contemporary French and German art, then by making a synthesis with mixing his experiences with Hungarian specialities he brought about his characteristic, individual style. Without him the world of the Fauves - who considered Perlrott one of their own with no regard to his nationality - or Cubism, or the Spanish-based German expressionism and mysticism, could not be fully understood in Hungary. After having professional guidance from József Koszta, Perlrott left Nagybánya as a student and disciple of Béla Iványi Grünwald. In 1905 he went to Paris, and the time he spent there significantly influenced his development. He was one of the founders of the Matisse school organized at that time. In 1

907 his works were exhibited in Salon d'Automn together with the Fauves. The so-called „Neos" (Béla Czóbel, Csaba Vilmos Perlrott, Sándor Ziffer, etc.), i.e. the artists well versed in Post-lmpressionalism, Fauvism and Cubism returning back to Hungary were met with a hostile reception. In spite of all this, Perlrott always came back to the country from all the stations of his busy, much-traveled life. In 1911, with the support of Károly Ferenczy he got a scholarship to Spain, and he became enchanted by El Greco. In the 1910s he was active as one of the founders of the Kecskemét art settlement („studio farm"). The decorative style influenced by Cézanne and Art Nouveau (Jugendstyl, Secession) has much to do with the style of Csaba Vilmos Perlrott. In the early I920's he was traveling in the Hungarian Highlands (now Slovakia) and in Germany where he got in touch with Expressionism. In his Bible-based pictures respect of the Gothic and the mystic is manifest in the unity of Cubism and Expressio-nism. From the second half of the decade almost until the breaking out of the Second World War, he spent his summers at Nagybánya, and his winters in Paris. This is 108