A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1987 (Debrecen, 1988)

Holló László Kossuth-díjas festőművész születése 100. évfordulója alkalmából a Déri Múzeumban rendezett Emlékülés 1987. március 5. - Kovács Péter: László Holló and the Problem of the so-called Great Plain Painters

Péter Kovács LÁSZLÓ HOLLÓ AND THE PROBLEM OF THE SO-CALLED GREAT PLAIN PAINTERS From the twenties on in the works of Hungarian art historians it became customary to consider the painters living and working in certain different places of the Hungarian Great Plain to constitute an independent group and tendency in the history of Hungarian painting from the middle of the last century up to the present times. The starting point of the author is whether László Holló, who lived in Debrecen, a town of the Plain through almost all his life, belonged to this not yet exactly determined group or not. As it is referred the former studies are uncertain in this question. Thus the author first attempts to make the category of the "painting of/in the Great Plain" much more precise and determined. He establishes that this is a rather complex category, which should be first of all understood geographically, but has become the synonym of Hungarian, populist, revolutionary also realistic at the same time, involves the tradition of Munkácsy Mihály's painting as a stylistic point of connection, accompanied by a sociographical interest towards the life of peasantry and a kind of pathetic and romantic view. Next the author reviews what kind of explanations the painters, Rudnay Gyula, Tornyai János, Koszta József and Nagy István, whose artistic production at the turn and in the first two decades of the century authorized the existence of this group and category, gave to their artistic choice, themselves. He concludes that their attitude can be characterised by national, social and moral commitment on one hand and artistic isolation together with consciously engaged stylistic conservatism — but high aesthetic values — on the other hand. Comparing all these to Holló László's work and personal confessions, as a consequence the author can establish that László Holló, though remaining true to the artistic ideals of his youth — connecting to Paris — to the end of his life, against his original inspirations and artistic intentions got similarly isolated and became a "Great Plain painter" through his lot. 425