Mészáros Júlia, N.: 35 éves a Győri Művésztelep. Történeti áttekintés, művek, életrajzi adatok, beszámoló a jubileumi találkozóról - Győri művészettörténet 4. (Győr, 2003)

N. Mészáros Júlia: A Győri Művésztelep működésének és alkotótevékenységének 35 éve

unambiguously praiseworthy achievement, as the creation of the primary conditions required incredible energy, collaboration, vigour and no small financial support on the city’s part, and what is even more significant, it embodied higher artistic and intellectual demand than that preferred by the official cultural policy.

Owing to the small number of the creations left in Győr, the evaluation of the work done in the first period is not too simple. As thanks to the passion for photography of the symposia’s leaders, the documentation included taking snapshots of the participants, besides selective preservation of letters and at the most filming of the excursions and the audience of closing exhibitions, and since the participants were not obliged to offer works in the first seven years - we know hardly any of the creations of that time directly. These are mostly negligible sketches, caricatures drawn in the visitors’ book, collages of amateur level, drawings as well as watercolours and paintings embodying modest artistic quality. Through their mediocre or lower artistic standard they rather possess a value of documentation. But it is the truth, that at the same time the amateur photos preserved sporadically do not show an essentially different overall picture of the creations or their qualities either, so we cannot be very much mistaken if we consider the few works that have remained from this period are of average level, and evaluate the results of creative activity of the first period with this knowledge. This is also corroborated by the contemporary newspaper articles of more critical tone which regularly reported about the exhibitions of the artists’ symposia (3).

The idea of establishment of a permanent collection of the works created here arouse only from the middle of the 70s, on the incentive of the artists and supposably Nándor Salamon, who, working for the János Xántus Museum from 1974 participated in organization of closing exhibitions more and more often (Győr Exhibition Hall), moreover, it was he, who mounted and opened the 10- year jubilee exhibition at the Napoleon House inaugurated as a gallery meanwhile, as well as organized once a year one-person exhibitions of some participants (4).

Among the creations that have remained in the fine art collection of the János Xántus Museum and the documentation of the Municipal Museum of Art, we can find works by Rezső Fügh, Agnes E. Kulcsár, Zoltán Gámentzy, Lajos Fiilöp, Csaba Hatos, László Heitler, Piroska Hódosi, Henrik Krajcsirovics, Antal Marosfalvi, József Martinék, Piroska Mersits, Márta M. Heim, György Molnár M., Emerencia K. Nagy, József Pattantyús, Sándor Sándorfalvi, Béla Simon, Géza Szily, Máté Szőlősi, Ilona T. Szűcs, Valéria Várnai, Klaus Wegmann, Helmut Zimmer and Christian Butter from the years between 1969 and 1976. With the exception of some genres and illustrations, partly abstract works, all of them represent the inner city and environs of Győr or Lake Balaton, perhaps an imaginary lansdcape on a very distant level from the

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