Barki Gergely - Gulyás Gábor: Újragondolt Czóbel. A szentendrei Czóbel Múzeum állandó kiállítása (Szentendre, 2016)

Czóbel set an example - possible to follow but impossible to imitate - for his young fellows at the colony, several of whom had also been to Paris and had returned with a similar outlook and set of stylistic marks (Tibor Boromisza, Dezső Czigány, Vilmos Huszár, Sándor Ziffer, etc.). In Nagybánya, Czóbel became the catalyst of the transition to a new approach to painting, which made use of the achievements of Parisian modernism and established a local variant of the new understanding of nature, breaking completely with the principles of plein-air. Conservative and lacking in an understanding of the new style, his masters (with the exception of Iványi) and most of the critics labelled them Neos (Neo-Impressionists) and continued to regard the new revolution in Hungarian painting with reservation or disapproval.

The last summer at Nagybánya (in 1906) was to be of great significance for Czóbel’s development: this was when he completely broke with his masters’ perspective, and took a decisive step towards par excellence Fauvism.

In the vanguard of international modernism, among the French Fauves (1906-1908)

He went on to integrate himself in the Paris scene, seeking the company of the most radical innovators. In bohemian Montparnasse he made the acquaintance of the mysterious shapers of the new canon in painting, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and their new discoveries, the professorial Matisse and Picasso. Later, thanks to the still unknown Modigliani, his neighbour at the studio apartment he rented on the Cité Falguiére, he also gained initiation into the more eccentric circles of the French capital. It was at this time that he met Friesz, Camoin and others of the Fauves, with whom he would share exhibitions for two years from 1906.

25 I Kalapos nő | Woman Wearing Hat 1930-as évek 11930s

26 I Kalapos nő | Woman Wearing Hat 1925 körül I around 1925

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