Király Erzsébet - Jávor Anna szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 1997-2001, Művészettörténeti tanulmányok Sinkó Katalin köszöntésére (MNG Budapest, 2002)

TANULMÁNYOK / STUDIES - BOROS Judit: Szempontok Ferenczy Károly modernizmusához

Gonzales, Das landhaus, Spanische Tänzer, Porträt des Herren Guys, Dame auf dem Kanapee. Die Reiterin. Unvollendet. 23 Ferenczy Károly levele Réti Istvánhoz. Év nélkül. A levélboríték bélyegzőjén: Budapest 62. 907. ápr. 18. MNG Adattár: 8271/1955. 24 Ferenczy Valér: i, m. (4. j.) 98. 25 MNG Grafikai Osztály 1934-2611. 26 Grassi: i. m. (5. j.) 79. 27 „Mindamellett, hogy saját megállapítása szerint naturalista volt, biztos, hogy soha nem érdekelte volna olyan festő, aki csupán a természet egy darabjának pazar tudással, fölényes festői előadással való visszaadását tűzi maga elé; az ilyen piktúra, amelyet a francia - mint apám maga mondta nekem - »bon morceau de peinture«-nek nevez, nem állt nagy becsben előtte. Éppúgy, mint a saját munkájánál, a másénál is mindenekfölött a művészi elgondolás, a koncepció eredetisége, a színösszeállítás harmóniája - hogy kedvenc szavát használjam: előkelősége - volt mindenekfölött fontos szemében; ezeknek hiányáért a legragyogóbb festeni tudás sem kárpótolta." Ferenczy Valér: i. m. (4. j.) 46. 28 Uő. uo. 70. 29 Uő. uo. 73. JUDIT BOROS Viewpoints to the Modernism of Károly Ferenczy The name of Károly Ferenczy, one of the spearheads of modern Hungarian art, is inextricably intertwined with the foundation and history of the Art Colony of Nagybánya (Baia Mare). Ferenczy was one of the painters who, together with Simon Hollósy, the leader of a painting school in Munich, abandoned the official Hungarian art life, thus carrying out secession, the basis of modernism, although their painterly idiom was based on plein air naturalism instead of the Jugendstil. Developing his colouristic naturalism on a synthetic basis (to quote the words he used in the catalogue of his first one-man show as the only expression of his ars poetica at a relatively early date), Ferenczy interpreted modernism in a far broader sense than his colleagues. Parallel with the brilliant landscapes inspired by the pairless beauty of the scenery around Nagybánya, he also created a less known or acknowledged studio series in which he confronted the creative processes and genre theories of the legacy of renaissance painting with the requirements of the visual revolution of the 19th century and with the value crisis also expressed in the subjectivism of post-Kantian philosophy. Some of his experiments were aimed at mimesis realized during the evolution of a theoretical stance, and at the problem of beauty in modern art raised by the estheticism of the turn of the century. The unquestionable primacy of the sight (the picture), however, did not stifle his ambition to express the totality of the existential experience. In this regard, Ferenczy continued Manet's pre-1870 approach and shared the theoretical stance of some Nabis painters (Maurice Denis, Félix Valloton). I was prompted to interpret Ferenczy's modernism and his whole painting in a broader sense by two earlier papers of Katalin Sinkó. Analyzing the paradigmatic work The painter and his model (1904), Sinkó pointed out that Ferenczy was engrossed here in tackling the problem of "natura" turned "esthetic, classical quality". This gave a new turn to Ferenczy's reception of almost a hundred years, which may as well be tagged a respectable xenolith of Hungarian art historiography. Ferenczy was received with great raptures and equally great antipathy by the contemporary critics. The enthusiasm was inspired by the creator who wished to combat deflated academism and revive Hungarian painting in terms of purity, sinceity, simplicity, and it was sanctioned by one of the most outstanding Hungarian representatives of art theory, Lajos Fülep, who compared Ferenczy's style with the outlook of the impressionist Claude Monet. Aversion was at first only expressed by conservative journalists and critics, but when the so-called studio questions became prevalent in his paintings, Fülep declared him to be decadent and mannered, and thinking of him, created the term modern academy which he condemned as something that impedes artistic progress by resuscitating defunct traditions. Today, however, the modern academy can be interpreted as a non-impressionistic concept of modernism.