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

NEW ACQUISITIONS, NEW RESULTS - Anna KOPÓCSY: Vilma Kiss: Golgotha

in 1934, "a great exhibition organizer, she knows all about animation filmmaking, a first-rate journalist, poster painter, she has a cornucopia of new ideas, and, to top it all, she is one of the most upright persons I have ever known."

10 She maintained contacts with the Hungarian colony in Paris, and participated in the work of Arc-en-Ciel puppet theatre Géza Blattner ran." She was among the first to take part in French animation filmmaking, producing even her own film Les Enfants du Ciel (The Children of Heaven) in Paris in 1943, but she did not live to see its première, she had died of kidney disorder.

12 However surprising it is, the remains of her estate (12 paintings) are now held by the National Gallery. They were deposited in the collection as works by an unknown artist in 1958; their identification took place in the 1960s.

13 The rediscovery of these pictures gave the clue to the correct attribution of the Golgotha previously deemed Vaszary's. The painting entitled Wailing Women in her estate

14

, being the closest possible analogy of the picture in question, can be thought of as its sequel. (111. 1 ) Golgotha depicts the eclipse of the sun, the darkness and terror that ensued after Christ's death. Exaggerated, grotesque movements, schematic, Negroid faces, veiled figures suggestive of timelessness were the recurrent motifs of the unfolding art of Vilma Kiss (e.g. Asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane).^ The use of colour symbolism deriving from mediaeval art is also characteristic of her paintings. Due to her fresco-like mode of painting, her rough, unelaborated details and her anti-naturalistic attitude, her works reveal an ancient and pure symbolic world, and so harmonize with the post-expressionist aspirations of the period.

16 "Her artistic vision tends to the faith-filled formal world of the primitives, and is thus related to the art of Noémi Ferenczy. The power of her formmaking imagination devoid of all niceties affirms itself most purely when she captures Biblical themes to realize her aspirations in composition," as the critic of Magyarság put it.

17 Vilma Kiss depicted almost exclusively female figures in her works, which can thus be thought of as romantic friendship pictures. "We are always together. I sometimes feel we totally understand each other," wrote Anna Czillich in her diaries, which were published with an afterword written by Vilma Kiss at the Christmas of 1925.

18 The painter friend, who died tragically early of tuberculosis, wrote of the time they spent together, their intellectual inspiration, their visits to the opera, their shared enthusiasm for Beethoven and Wagner. Anna Czillich made passionate confessions of their friendship becoming closer as she struggled with her disease: "I know how much she desires and desired death, and she knows the same of me, but she keeps telling me of my recovery."

19 Golgotha is an impression of their shared pain and the cathartic purification art worked in them. NOTES: 1 Apart from the 14 Vaszarys, Németh offered works by Emő Jeges, László Fülöp and János Thorma. See the papers on the donation: HNG Documentation Department, reg. no.: 863-1120/1978 2 On Kálmán Németh see Németh, Kálmán. Fába véset! gondolatok. Büki, Attila ed. Fót: Fót Nagyközség Önkormányzatának Németh Kálmán emlékbizottsága, 2003. 3 Due to her tragically untimely death, the works of Anna Czillich were displayed posthumously at the exhibition. On her see Szűcs, György. "Napfogyatkozás. Emlékezés Czillich Annára." Új Művészet, 1999, no. 8, pp. 7-8. 4 According to the reminiscences of Józsa Járitz, she, together with Vilma Kiss and other female painters of a modernist outlook, attended Oszkár Glatz

's female class at his studio in Fehérvári út. "The spirit and standard of the school was a hundred percent, truly of the highest rank. This studio would later become the headquarters of the revolution at the Academy." Járitz, Józsa. "Egy művész életútja." Forrás, 1969, nos. 5-6, November-December, pp. 111-119. 5 On Vaszary's representations of Christ see Szűcs, György. "Golgota, 1929— 1930." In: Veszprémi, Nóra ed. Vaszary János (1867-1939) gyűjteményes kiállítása. Cat. concept by Gergely, Mariann and Edit Plesznivy. Budapest: HNG, 2007, pp. 226-228. 6 A show of a New Group within the Society of Hungarian Women Artists at the National Salon; see A Magyar Képzőművésznök Egyesülete Új Csoportjának műveiből álló LXX111. Csoportkiállítás, cat. Budapest: Nemzeti Szalon, 1931, cat. nos 76-88. 7 Ibid. n. p. 8 Máriusz Rabinovszky's letter to the Exhibition Committee of the Free Organization of Artists. Archive of the Research Institute for Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, inv. no.: MKCS-C-I-64/127. 9 The Reimann-Schule was a Berlin pendant of the Weimar Bauhaus (Rabinovszky compared it to the atelier of Dezső Orbán, see Rabinovszky's letter cited in Note 8). In its approach, it sought to bridge the gap between fine and applied arts, significantly contributing to the spread of modern forms in everyday life through its connections with industry. It secured regular commercial commissions for its students, and published its own magazine called Farbe und Form. Vilma Kiss was employed here to teach drawing. In 1935, the school was forced to move to London. Vilma Kiss declined the invitation of the school re-established without its original founders, though her extraction would not have made her leaving necessary (see Rabinovszky's letter, Note 8). 10 Ferenc Martyn's letter to Lajos Török, May 12, 1943. In: Martyn, Ferenc. Levelek Török Lajoshoz. Pécs: Jelenkor, 1999, p. 107. 11 She designed the Eskimo scene for the Tragedy of Man by Imre Madách staged at the 1938 World's Fair. Cf. Tóth, Gábor Sándor. Sándor A. Tóth peintre, marionnettiste à Montparnasse. Budapest: Püski - Paris: L'Harmattan, 2001. p. 161. 12 Several Hungarian papers reported her death: "Meghalt Párizsban egy kiváló magyar grafikusnő." In: Nemzeti Újság, February 18, 1943, p. 9.; "Meghalt Parisban az első magyar filmrajzoló művésznő." In: Pest, May 10, 1943, p. 6. 13 Zsuzsa Molnár's report on seeking and finding Vilma Kiss's works in May-June, 1967. See Archive of the Research Institute for Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: MKCS-C-I-77/1552. 14 Wailing Women, 1920s, oil on canvas, 54*65 cm, HNG, inv. no.: L.U. 58.713. 15 The Saphier Collection, inv. no.: 123. Reproduced in Géger, Melinda ed. Vaszary János festőművész tanítványai. Emlékkiállítás a művész születésének 140. évfordulója alkalmából. Catalogue. Kaposvár: Rippl-Rónai Múzeum, 2007, p. 89. 16 See Rabinovszky, Máriusz. "Posztexpresszionizmus." In: Új Művészet, 1927, no. 2. Reprinted in: Rabinovszky, Máriusz. Két korszak határán. Válogatott művészeti írások. Dávid, Katalin ed. N.p. [Budapest:] Corvina, 1965, p. 103. 17 (n.a.). "Kiss Vilma grafikai kiállítása." In: Magyarság, April 4, 1925, p. 16. 18 Czillich Anna naplója. Afterword by Vilma Kiss. Budapest: Lantos Rt., 1925, p. 96. 19 Ibid.