Nagy Ildikó szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 1980-1988 (MNG Budapest, 1989)
The Lyka Károly National Competition in Art History for secondary schools. 1988 (Judit Mazányi)
Participants visited Szentendre, an important centre for 20thcentury Hungarian art, the Vasarely Museum in Budapest, the Ludwig collection and that of Magdalena Abakanovicz: they also had the chance to speak with the artists at the exhibition of the SZAFT group 6 . Finally, they visited the National Graphic Design Workshop. The formal competition was staged on the last day. What they had to complete was a test paper with questions of varying difficulty, examining their skills such as visual memory, their ability to apply written or seen material in a creative way. their ability to recognize certain trends and their associative skills. Their last task was to analyze a well-known painting by Béla Kondor, the WaspKing. This picture, a tragi-grotesque and ambivalent interpretation of traditional symbols and construction characteristic of our times, offers an infinite number of approaches. Most of the entrants, however, preferred an approach in which they tried to construe the meaning of the symbolic figures. The successful analyses, few in number, were written by those in whom the painting elicited free associations which they confronted with the concrete means of visual expression. All in all. the papers proved that the contestants were wellprepared and the competition had succeeded in furthening their knowledge. Only nine went on to the final round where they had to analyze the career of nine contemporary Hungarian artists, on the basis of the relevant literature. The nine artists were selected to represent different generations, art disciplines and trends, thus giving a cross-section of contemporary Hungarian art. The competitors had to make interviews and using them and some slides, to introduce the life-work of an artist to the jury. They were thus able to acquire the basic skills in using source materials for the analysis of contemporary art. It was apparent, and also explicitly stated by the entrants, that a personal encounter with the artist noticeably modified the image they had anticipated. The competition was won by a sixteen-year-old from a Budapest secondary school. Nevertheless, the organizers hope that all the entrants gained useful experience in the reception of modern art and came to know better exhibition halls, artists, art historians and art periodicals. Judit Mazányi 5. The European Sehool was formed in 1945 as an association of artists devoted to contemporary Hungarian art whether abstract, surrealist, expressionist. They disbanded in 1948. 6. The SZAFT group founded by members of the avant-garde Lajos Vajda Studio in Szentendre and some Budapest artists does not represent a special trend defined by the use of particular tools of expression: it is an occasional association of artists intent on continuing the avant-garde in creation. The acronym SZAFT which means 'juice' in Hungarian, comes from the following words: multi-media, personal, symbolic, surrealist, sovereign: abstract, subjective: figurai, fictional, objective, private-mythological. 7. Béla Kondor (1931—1972). a painter and graphic artist, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. His work has exerted a great influence on contemporary graphic designers. NOTES 1. These two institutes coordinate paedagogical research, prepare the curricula of various subjects, provide professional supervision and advice. 2. Competitions in secondary school subjects are organized by the Ministry of Culture and Education for students in their final two years of secondary school. A competition consists of three rounds and is based on the entrant's individual work and the material in the school textbook. Those who take one of the first ten places are admitted to university without entrance examination 3. Károly Lyka (1869—1965) studied painting at the Munich Academy. As an art critic, he was one of the most ardent promoters of the first group of modern Hungarian artists, the Nagybánya colony founded in 1896. He wrote several books on 19th- and 20th-century Hungarian art. 4. The central museum authorities of a count)' coordinate the financial and professional matters of the state-run museums in the given county.
