Veszprémi Nóra - Szücs György szerk.: Vaszary János (1867–1939) gyűjteményes kiállítása (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2007/3)

Tanulmányok: - FÖLDI ESZTER: „...modern plakátot csinálni...". Vaszary János alkalmazott grafikai tevékenységéről

ESZTER FÖLDI The Making of Modern Posters" JÁNOS VASZARY AND GRAPHIC DESIGN Vaszary's graphic design has a significant role within both his own oeuvre and Hungarian art at the turn of the 19

th and 20

th centuries. Regularly working on commission, he did not experiment in genre, but simply sought to fulfil the requests of his customers and meet the requirements of the occasion. When official art organizations ordered from him, he produced allegories in modern style "respecting their exalted aim"; when working for commercial or publisher partners, he was more liberal and daring in making use of genre scenes with decorative Art-Nouveau elements. An important figure in the making of Hungarian graphic design, he was one of the few masters along with József Rippl-Rónai to come from the direction of painting to this relatively new genre. According to data yet available, he began his activities as an illustrator in 1891, submitting drawings for the Christmas supplement of the daily Magyar Hírlap. He received his next commission from the publishers Wodianer and Lampel in 1892. They ordered illustrations from him for a book of biographies of Hungarian notabilities by his uncle, Kolos Vaszary, the Primate of Hungary (Cat. No. 305). Apart from its blunders, the cover is an interesting composition foreshadowing many of Vaszary's favourite motifs to come. It is built up of topoi related to fame and history: bearing a burning torch, a female figure in a white veil laurels the bust of Clio. The hand lifting up the wreath, the representation of a symbolic concept in the form of a sculpture, the flame and the environment of trees and foliage would be recurrent motifs in several of his future designs. During his Paris years, he must have come under the influence of the ideas of József Rippl-Rónai, an old-time, Kaposvár friend living in Paris since 1889. In a recollection, Vaszary mentioned that he had visited the studio of RipplRónai, who had shown him his graphic design work, too. Vaszary may well have looked upon his colleague, who was his elder by six years and an artist maintaining relations with the Nabis, an example to be followed. Rippl-Rónai produced, in 1894, both his first embroidery idealism and Realism and his lithograph Woman Reading under a Lamp, which was printed in La Revue Blanche. Vaszary must have seen both, and would probably have heard RipplRónai's account of the most modern principles of the applied arts. With regard to Vaszary's graphic designs, the question arises whether he was familiar with the work of Alfons Mucha during his Paris sojourn. Mucha's immensely popular poster Gismonda, which, according to contemporary sources, brought about a revolution in poster art, appeared on the streets on January 1, 1895. According to latest research, Vaszary might have returned to Budapest sometime later in the beginning of that year, which means that he could have seen the famous poster. Also, he may have seen Mucha's designs at exhibitions. Vaszary made his first poster design for the first Hungarian commercial poster competition, which Endre Thék announced in the December 1897 issue of the Hungarian applied arts magazine Magyar Iparművészet in order to popularize his piano works. The narrow, upright design depicts a woman, who, standing in front of a piano, hits the keyboard of a piano and partly turns back with her dreamy face. The semi-circular closure and the inscription running above, the types of which are similar to those of Gismonda, suggest the influence of Mucha. In the Thék poster and the book covers he designed at the time, Vaszary depicted genre scenes in a decorative, Art-Nouveau style. However, when designing the invitation card for the celebration of the 65

th anniversary of the painter Károly Lötz in 1898 (Cat. No. 304), he had recourse to his academic training, and presented his allegorical message in a meticulously naturalist style. A genius stands on the left of the card with its out-spread wings ruling the whole side. Vaszary placed the portrait of Lötz in a medallion at the foot of the genius. The ornamentation conveys an all together Art-Nouveau impression, while half of the composition is dominated by the academic depiction of the figure of the genius and the portrait of Károly Lötz. The Petőfi Album published for the 50

th anniversary of the 1848 revolution reproduced works by famous painters, members of an older generation of artists, as illustrations. Vaszary was the only "modern" painter to appear in the volume, illustrating the poem Of the Homeland (Cat. No. 308). He sought to epitomize the content of the poem in a single image. Though he turned out the most modern picture in the album, he, amidst the illustrious company of masters, reverted to the teaching of his old master at the Academy of Fine Arts, Bertalan Székely. The difference between the compositions in the illustration for Of the Homeland and those three he made for the representative edition of Sándor Bródy's novel Az ezüst kecske (Silver Goat) also in 1898 (Cat. No. 313) is clearly visible. These works are painterly in their style, the portraits have the sugary manner of salon painting, while the last of these {Piroska, the Widow) witnesses the symbolist painter he was, too. Vaszary designed the cover of Gyula Pekár's collection of short stories, The Legend of the Year (1897, Cat. No. 309). The zodiac sphere of the title page resembles Mucha's famous Zodiac Calendar (1897), while the fluttering red hair recalls the female figures of the illustrator Eugène Grasset. After this, Vaszary worked on an official commission again: designing the cover of the catalogue of the Hungarian fine arts exhibition at the Paris World's Fair in 1900 (Cat. No. 311). He had Pictura hold a palette and brushes in her left and a laurel combined with the coat-of-arms of the arts in her right hand. Thus she is both Pictura and Gloria for she wreathes with a laurel. The figure is surrounded by the text of the title, it is only the lettered types that serve as a setting. In 1903, Vaszary tried his skills in a novel area. Following foreign examples, Könyves Kálmán Publishers issued an album of lithographs, and they requested Hungarian painters to produce the originals. Vaszary, who had never before lithographed, presented two prints, Omnibus Stop and Spring (Cat. Nos. 214-215). Omnibus Stop has no parallel in his oeuvre, at all. It is as though he had tried to demonstrate his "preparedness", his familiarity with the masters of French lithography, and to pay tribute to such works by RipplRónai. The conception of Spring is quite different. If the former print is Frenchlike, this one is suggestive of German symbolism, conveying an allegorical message in the guise of a spring conversation piece. Vaszary's last known lithograph is a poster announcing the 1907 exhibition of the Nemzeti Szalon (National Salon). Above the figure of a man leaning on his elbow and immersing himself in thought, he depicted a female nude - perhaps the muse about to kiss the forehead of the artist. In the course of the researches, several yet unknown works have turned up. Such are the illustrations for the Historical Biographies, the title page of Pál Koroda's volume of poetry, Lyra (Cat. No. 306), the front and back cover for Gyula Pekár's collection of short stories, The Legend of the Year. The collection, systematization and analysis of the newly discovered and the known works of the artist have shed new light on him, demonstrating he had been a momentous figure in Hungarian graphic design.