Klemmné Németh Zsuzsa szerk.: Triznya Mátyás (1922–1991) (PMMI kiadványai – Kiállítási katalógusok 13. Pest Megyei Múzeumok Igazgatósága, 2005)
opening, the artist himself arrived in Hungary though a bit late - after 48 years' absence. I will never forget that hot August afternoon in 1986, when I with my husband first entered the famous "Triznya pub", that is, the Triznya couple's home in Via Annia Faustina. Zsuzsa was waiting for us with some delicious pizza, which grew cold because we - being inexperienced travellers, who had been permitted to leave the country every three years only - lost our way in Rome. In spite of this, after a few minutes, we felt at home with them as if we had been everyday guests "at that Hungarian island in Rome" as we can read the concise defL nition of their particular literary salon at the beginning of the book titled A Triznya- kocsma 1 . Forum Romanum oszlopai 1985 We were having coffee when Zsuzsa whispered to me that Matyi would love to have an exhibition at the Szőnyi Museum in Zebegény. Naturally, as a young and naDve museologist, I agreed, why not, Mátyás Triznya was also one of István Szőnyi's pupils. And, what a wonder, by the following spring, the exhibition was realized, perhaps, due to the milder atmosphere before the forthcoming change of the political system. The opening ceremony became a pilgrimage: several hundreds of people were thronging in the small rooms of the SzőnyLhouse, everybody would have liked to see Matyi's pictures - which could not be realized in such circumstances and, most of all, to greet the Triznya couple and thank them for their kindness and hospitality in Rome. Unfortunately, in the following years, Matyi got ill though he kept his good humour and painted till the end. On 18th October 1991, the day of the patron saint of painters, he died in Rome. He was buried in the graveyard of Zebegény. After the exhibition of Zebegény, there were several bigger or smaller shows. The last one was in 2002, on the occasion of the Year of Hungarian Culture in Italy, at Hegyvidék Gallery in Városmajor then in 2004, in Petőfi Literary Museum. The present exhibition of Szentendre can be regarded as retrospective because the nearly one hundred works show the whole painterly world of Mátyás Triznya. Owing to the help of private collectors, there can be seen aquarelles that have never been on show for the public. Szentendre is not so far from Rome because a long time ago, the spiritual radiation of the capital of the empire even reached Ulcisia Castra, the military camp of the distant Province Pannónia. Perhaps, that is why, Mátyás Triznya could remain a Hungarian painter in Rome. "The aquarelle, the watercolour is the genre of instantanéité therefore I marked my works for "European moments". Pannonian landscape also belongs to this range."- said Mátyás Triznya about his own painting in 1987 when he was talking to Áron Tóbiás. 8 We believe that all the people who see the exhibition will share such a "European moment" in Szentendre in 2005. Rózsa Köpöczi "' Zsuzsa Szőnyi: A Triznya-kocsma, Kortárs Kiadó, Budapest, 1999 9 Itália kék ege alatt, Áron Tóbiás' conversation with Mátyás Triznya, Római Akvarellek Triznya Mátyás (1922-1991), Kortárs Kiadó, Budapest, 2002, p.10
