Magyar News, 2003. szeptember-2004. augusztus (14. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2004-07-01 / 11-12. szám
A visit to the Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation in New Brunswick is always an uplifting experience. Besides the exhibits one could find a huge library of Hungarian books, some written in English, researchers, archives, and a store that sells books, embroideries, and artifacts. The talented staff is lead by Professor August Molnár. This museum becomes part of the Hungarian events that take place, the annual Hungarian Festival, and the list could go on-and-on. This time we visited two exhibits organized by Patricia Fazekas, who is the art curator of the museum. The Nineteenth Century Art exhibit was curated by Dr. Oliver Botár on behalf of the Salgo Collection. We turn to him to tell us about the Salgo Trust and about the exhibited art. Here are some excerpts from what Dr. Botár wrote: “Over the past twenty years Nicholas Salgo assembled one of the most important collections of Hungarian art found outside Hungary. It is part of the Salgo Trust for Education and is housed at Mille Fleurs, a Patricia Fazekas, curator of the Museum, stands at one of her favorites, Woman in Landscape by Frigyes Strobenz, 1910 gracious, old home near Port Washington, Long Island. In accordance with the Trust's provision to make this remarkable collection available to a larger public, we are displaying the collection's very best examples of 19th century Hungarian art and are including relevant early 20th century works which continue earlier themes. The show is comprised of seventy works, and includes paintings and works on paper. During his years as US Ambassador to the former People's Republic of Hungary during the mid 1980s, Nicholas Salgo fulfilled a long-standing dream of assembling a collection of Hungarian art. Fulfilling his promise to the then Minister of Culture, in 1992 Ambassador Salgo set up the Salgo Trust for Education, to promote the research and exhibition of his many collections, one of the most important of which is the collection of Hungarian art. The 19th century was Joseph Rácz visiting from Norwalk, CT, enjoys a familiar village scene painted by Mihály Munkácsy. a crucial period of Hungary's millennial history.Though the Ottoman occupying forces had been expelled by the end of the 17th century, the 18th century was largely a period of backwardness in the devastated country. It was not until the advent of the Enlightenment that thoughts of a national revival began to stir in Magyar intellectual circles within a larger multi-ethnic Hungary. This also brought with it a revival in the fine arts, including literature, drama, music and painting. The Hungarian aristocratic families involved in the national revival of the early 19th century patronized Viennese Academic artists in their drive to establish painting on Hungarian
