Basics Beatrix (szerk.): Bálint Endre (1914-1986) Montázsok, grafikák. Szentendrei Képtár, 2015.02.27- 05.31. - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, D. sorozat: Múzeumi füzetek - Kiállításvezetők 8. (Szentendre, 2015)
Even though he was in the forbidden rank till 1956, after the seventies he received every notable state honour (Honoured artist - 1973, Order of Labour golden grade - 1975, Distinguished artist - 1975, Kossuth Prize - 1985). While he never had a permanent home or studio in Szentendre, he had a strong bond with the town through his work, considering that he not only used elements of the town’s typical outline in his paintings, but he often used it as a theme in his writings. A collective exhibition was organised last year in the Hungarian National Gallery on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth (The Eighth Temple), in the Szentendre Art Gallery a selection of his mostly unknown montages, an important segment of his works is shown. The Ferenczy Museum purchased in 2010 the thirty montages of the Bálint bequest which form the major part of this exhibition. As the museum’s collection did not represent Bálint’s oeuvre according to its importance, this purchase was absolutely in due time. Works of Bálint are scattered around, many of them in different private collections. The Ferenczy Museum has a few early works, but not enough to show the complexity of the whole oeuvre. None of the montages got to the collection till the purchase of 2010, and these thirty pieces were never displayed formerly. They are staged in Szentendre for the first time together. As they do not have titles given by the artist himself, we show them accordingly. Compared to the early montages these were made in the first half of the eighties, and are more complex and manifold than the earlier pieces. By the returning motifs - inscriptions with Hebrew letters, tombstones, Jewish memories, the artist’s own photos, photos of the fellow artists and friends, motifs of death and violence, well, or less known documentary photos, folk art elements, scores - the reproductions of Bálint’s own earlier works appear on the montages. Some of the earlier montages were displayed in the seventies, but these late pieces - together with a few important graphic works - are shown for the first time in the Szentendre Art Gallery. A kiállított művek a Ferenczy Múzeum gyűjteményében találhatók. The artworks exhibited belong to the collection of the Ferenczy Museum. 8
