Verba Andrea szerk.: Új természetkép. A tájábrázolás változása az 1930-as és 40-es években (PMMI kiadványai - Kiállítási katalógusok 8. Pest Megyei Múzeumok Igazgatósága, 2004)

English summary. New Nature Vision - Transformation of Landscape Representation in the 1930s and 1940s

catching the essential features, the immanent character of the view beyond the "vegetative colour harmonies" of the sensual surface. While in the first half of the 30s, picture forming, which gradually abstracted landscape motifs, - according to the dominance of a constructivist way of seeing - reinterpreted the results of cubism and activism above all, the new nature vision appearing from the second half of the decade is determined with expressive and surrealistic features rather. From the beginning of the 40s, besides the personal experience of existential threatening, the researches of natural sciences suggested the message that "several phenomena of the material world are dominated by irrational powers and rules." This irrationality permeating both tne elemental forms of abstract works and the detail motifs of landscapes based on a view experience indicated border areas where things known and seen were alloyed with a peculiar expressiveness. Concrete reality presented in the abstract forms of landscape prognosticated the vision of universal laws working under the surface. Studying the rich, inner structure of natural forms made it possible on an elemental level to catch larger correspondences that could gain their meaning in the horizon of a "new world concept". In 1947, developing the theory of bio-romanticism elaborated one and a half decades before, Ernő Kállai published a book titled Secret Face of Nature on abstract art, focusing on the hidden correspondences of universal structures of micro- and macrocosm. However, it was a hard way - and there was not only one! - to discover that secret face. In the second half of the 40s, it was mainly the artists belonging to the group named European School, who tried to reinterpret their artistic belief connected to nature. According to the works, most artists were trying to reach a synthesis where "a work cannot miss either an abstract or an objective form." "New nature vision" similarly to the idea of new romanticism introduced by Emő Kállai in I 944, besides considering the existing stylistic differences of the period, searches the common denominator without whose permanent presence "the new world concept" could not have been created. The nature vision based on an inspiring nature experience but abstracted from that in various extent is a versatile phenomenon. That is why, the exhibition offers a selection of not only the field of the painting of Szentendre because the change of view spread in a much wider circle. Especially the works of the artists involved in New Society of Artists, which existed from 1924 on, show a similar sort of nature vision in the 30s. At the same time, we cannot claim for completeness even in the field of Szentendre painting. If our exhibition through focusing on some exciting questions could make clear a few important stations of this development, reached its purpose. For the sake of illustration, our selection presents the exhibits in four units. In room I

, under the title of Widening horizon - line drawings, besides Jenő Barcsay's etchings of 193 I depicting Szentendre landscapes and indicating a change in the attitude for the first time, Imre Amos, Jenő Gadányi and Jenő Paizs Goebel's works of expressive character are on show. The radical interpretation of more abstract structures are presented in the line and colour dynamics of Lajos Vajda, Béla Fekete Nagy and Dezső Komiss

1 drawings. The works exhibited in room 2 titled Landscape Representation of Constructive Aspect are characterized with a tight pictorial rhythm and clear structure besides a compositional manner following the powerful tectonics of the ridge of hills. In Jenő Barcsay, Géza Bene, Antal Deli, Andor Kántor and Piroska Szántó's landscapes of similar attitude, an expressive pictorial language of individual character as well as a space aspect sensitive to monumental forms can be observed. In room 3 titled Landscape - colour - space; forms dissolving, you can follow the process during which the composition became determined by rich colour harmonies resulting in an irisated surface. Wh le in István llosvai Varga and Géza Bene's works made arourd '935-1936, the point of comparison in the composition is an earthy farmer or a female figure walking home, in Jenő Paizs Goebel and Bene's aquarelles made at the end of the 30s, the harmony evoking the Golden Age of nature seems to be burning up last - before the forthcoming large cataclysm - in the orchards dressed in flaming orange and casting violet shadows. György Szin's closed gardens keeping secrets as well as Imre Amos' truncated trees and the foliage gradually simplified into leaf motifs convey symbolic contents. In room 4 bearing the title Microcosm; on way towards abstraction, Jenő Barcsay, Géza Bene, Jenő Gadányi and Piroska Szántó's works emphasizing a characteristic vegetable motif are put together on the one hand, and György Hegyi and Zoltán Nuridsány's (the youth around European School) works of sensitive conduct have been selected, on the other hand. Besides revealing inner relations and analogies, the paintings and drawings mostly depicting the environs of Szentendre and Óbuda give a characteristic cross-section of the Hungarian painting of the period as well.