Veszprémi Nóra - Jávor Anna - Advisory - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2005-2007. 25/10 (MNG Budapest 2008)

STUDIES - Jenő MURÁDIN: Count Géza Teleki and the Transylvanian Connections of the Artists' House

high. Characteristically, their arguments combined the rejection of modern art with the unethical conduct of the organizers and a repulsion to social progress and even the budding socialist labourprotection movement. Charges were voiced that the organizers of the Artists' House imposed upon the benevolence of the aristocracy, they deceived them, caught them in the net of their basest interests. Ideological reasoning continued to be rehearsed, identifying modern art with the "foolish poetry" of Ady and the members of the Tomorrow Circle, with the worldview of those whose "whole intellectual food is based on reading Népszava and its pulp booklets."

29 Sane voices, like that of Hugó Lukács, were stifled in the din of battle. In contrast to the MIÉNK show, the scandal around the Artists' House seemed to provide invincible ammunition for the "mould knights" of conservatism. The person of Béla Kun, mentioned in passing above, was also a thorn in the flesh. The future Commune leader was inherited by the Artists' House from György Bölöni. He had been a schoolmate of Bölöni's at the Zilah (Zaläu) Wesselényi College, and, as a Kolozsvár journalist and an able organizer, he had given a hand in the preparations for the MIÉNK show.

30 The socialist party functionary made himself conspicuous by bustling to organize the Artists' House exhibition. Apart from becoming a curator of the Kolozsvár section of the Artists' House Society, he took the minutes of its statutory meeting.

31 Pursuing his journalistic career in Kolozsvár, Nagyvárad, Budapest, then back in Kolozsvár again, Kun had already served a prison sentence for instigation to violence against authorities. It was also known to many that his job at the Worker Insurance Bank meant none other than the status of an independent party official.

32 He boosted the circulation of Népszava, as well as wrote in it. This in itself was enough for taking offence. Scorned at anyway, he further aggravated his situation by his famous scandal, his embezzlement at the Worker Insurance Bank. This new embarrassing affair seemed very much to re-echo his earlier public conduct. Finally, the whirlwind of the outbreak of war covered up everything. It was already July 1914. Béla Kun evaded being sentenced by instantly volunteering for front service. To return to the confidence crisis in the Artists' House, a lawsuit at the Nagyvárad court revealed the matters of the unfulfilled promises. A well-known Nagyvárad lawyer, Zsigmond Lengyel, also a supporting member, sued the society as members did not even get as much as answers to their inquiries. By way of response, the management decided to publish the results of a drawing, but declared that the condition of handing over the prizes would be the payment of fees in arrears. This ploy had already been tried against 218 Kolozsvár members in September, 1910.

33 Finally, Lengyel was sent some worthless, unsigned piece of work, and, weary of the wrangling, was on the verge of giving up his case. But this time, the society itself requested the continuation of the trial, having obtained a ruling that declared the "exclusive jurisdiction of the Budapest court."

34 This legal quibbling meant that malcontents could seek redress only at a court in the capital. Now, and this the management of the society were perfectly aware of, who on earth would come up to Budapest and run into expenses on litigation in such a matter. The press of the day was as harsh and merciless about the society as it could be. "No one could have compromised Hungarian art life more than the bagmen of the Artists' House," wrote a Nagyvárad daily.

35 One can no longer determine the exact role 4. Cockfight. Relief carving in the garden of the Alsózsuk mansion Miklós Rózsa and his associates played in this. The fact that Géza Teleki separated from him not in relentless anger seems to corroborate his case.

36 The Artists' House put up no further collective exhibitions in Transylvania. There remained, however, a few points of contact with quarters in Transylvania and the Nagyvárad area [the Parts]. The society arranged a one-man exhibition for Ernő Tibor, a member the Tomorrow Circle, in the autumn of 1910.

37 However, it is even more surprising that István Nagy's oneman show at the Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mures) Culture Palace early in 1914 was organized under the auspices of the Artists' House Society, in particular with the patronage of Géza Teleki and Károly Kernstok referred to as leaders of the society! According to press reports, they "organized the exhibition, and recommended it to public attention."

38 Shortly afterwards in April, 1914, the Budapest public could see an exhibition of István Nagy's works together with those by Sándor Teplánszky and Lipót Gedő. In all probability, this was one of the last manifestations of the activities of the Artists' House. EPILOGUE: TOWARDS A PATRON'S CAREER Géza Teleki withdrew from public life at a historical watershed. Regarded by painters as a genuine apostle, even daring to take a stand for The Eights, a group of avant-garde artists, he left the stage of art movements baffled and with a bitter heart. Soon he would receive his call-up order, and fight through on all the fronts of the war. Upon his return, everything changed around him: the old world had for ever lost its features. His estates fell victim to the Romanian land reforms, which afflicted Transylvanian Flungarians with endless abuses. The horse races terminated, the great hunts were restricted to family members. Breadwinning for his family came to be a concern, too, especially after an unfortunate business venture ransacked the remains of his properties. He would never have thought that he would be forced to sell his paintings to ease his family's finances. It is worth citing here a period on his 1930 Kolozsvár exhibition phrased with the gusto of an accomplished writer, probably Károly Kós: "Were we not to be acquainted with the sad roman-