Nagy Ildikó szerk.: Nagybánya művészete, Kiállítás a nagybányai művésztelep alapításának 100. évfordulója alkalmából (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 1996/1)

Dancs Mária: Lyka Károly és a nagybányai művészet

returned to Hungary for good, which coincided with the year of Simon Hollósy's moving to Nagybánya. From the first moment, Lyka enthusiastically took up the promotion of the artistic ideals of the Nagybánya art colony in the press. His writings first appeared in Pesti Napló, then in Budapesti Napló, as well as in the picture magazine Új Idők. His reports on the life of the Nagybánya artist colony and on the exhibitions held there were published in these papers. These writings had a paramount importance, especially in the first few years in the life of the artist colony, since the new art was received neither with enthusiasm, nor with understanding. Between 1902 and 1918 he was the editor of the first art magazine in Hungary. In the magazine, which was entitled Művészet (Art), he always found space for writings about the Nagybánya colony and the artists working there, as well as for the reproductions of their drawings and paintings. After 1914 he worked as a lecturer at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts; in 1920 he was appointed to the post of Director at the same institute. Then, in 1921, he became the first Rector of the renewed Academy. While leading the institute, he introduced a whole list of reforms of rather conservative views. The recognition of talent, the students' free choice of teachers, the drawing and painting of live models - these measures all helped to spread the Nagybánya spirit within the walls of the Academy. His teaching and writing was crowned by his career as an art historian. He had a pioneering role in the research of nineteenth-century Hungarian art. He published a whole list of books and articles on this subject. He participated in the great project of compiling the art lexicon Thieme-Becker; he wrote all the entries pertaining to Hungary, including those discussing the Nagybánya artists. His books and studies provide the reader with fundamental guidance in the matter of nineteenth and twentieth-century Hungarian art, thus serving as a crucial source for the discovery of the work of the Nagybánya artists, who were so close to his heart and whom he so highly esteemed.