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

Csorba Géza: A Nagybánya-kép száz éve

Notes 1 The general use of the term "Nagybánya school" which is rarely used in research literature, is not identical with either, its meaning nor being quite clear: it is both used in the narrow sense, denoting the movement of the founding generation, and also in a broader sense. 2 The basic source of the chronology of artistic institutions and events in Nagybánya is to this day István Réti's book: A nagybányai művésztelep [The Nagybánya Artists' Colony] (first publ.: Budapest 1954, ed. Nóra Aradi; second edition of the complete text: Budapest 1994, ed. Géza Csorba, annotation and bibliography by György Szűcs. Hereinafter: Réti 19942). More recent research has enriched it with new data and aspects. The latest summary of the events based on documents recovered by recent partial research is found in Jenő" Murádin's study A nagybányai művésztelep 1919-1944 között [The Nagybánya Artists' Colony between 1919 and 1944]. In: Nagybánya. Nagybányai festészet a neósok fellépésétől 1944ig. Exhibition Catalogue. Ed.: Jurecskó, László-Kishonthy, Zsolt. MissionArt Gallery, Miskolc 1992 (hereinafter: Nagybánya 1992), 67-96. In the appendix there is a list of exhibitions by the Nagybánya painters and the annual registers of artists working in the colony. 3 The term "Hungarian Impressionism" was in general use in research literaUire, especially formerly. At present, it is a moot question whether one could speak about Impressionism in Hungarian painting at all. The word is used in this paper to signify the peculiar Hungarian variant of Impressionism. 4 "The last twenty-five years or so of the colony's history and stylistic history have been deprived their due attention in Hungarian art history. The processes that went on in the painters' colony between 1918 and 1944. The way how at the turn of the '20s and '30s the spirit of European avant-garde, the modern art of the Paris school burst in here." Cf. Murádin, Jenó': Nagybánya forradalmai. [The Revolutions of Nagybánya]. In: Tanulmányok a nagybányai művészet köréből. Miskolc 1994, 27. 5 Lyka, Károly: A Hollósy iskola itthon. Művésztelep Nagybányán. [The Hollósy School at home. An Artists' Colony in Nagybánya.] In: Pesti Napló April 15, 1896. 6 The first collective shows of the Nagybánya colony: 1. December 15, 1897-January 15, 1898 the Régi Műcsarnok together with the Hollósy school; 2. December 15, 1989-January 15, 1899, ibid., together with the Hollósy school; 3. December 15, 1899-February 15, 1900, as part of the winter show of the Műcsarnok, in a separate "Nagybánya room". The Hollósy school had a separate exhibition in the Nemzeti Szalon. Károly Lyka's articles: A nagybányaiak. [The Nagybánya Artists.] In: Budapesti Napló December 15, 1897; A nagybányaiak. [The Nagybánya Artists.] In: Új idők 1897, 537-538; A nagybányaiak. [The Nagybánya Artists.] In: Budapesti Napló December 18, 1898; Új képek [New Pictures] (The exhibition of the Nemzeti Szalon and the Hollósy school). In: Budapesti Napló December 7, 1899. The reviewers advocating the first Nagybánya exhibitions were the progressive writers and critics of the period: Ignotus, Sándor Bródy, Zoltán Ambrus, József Nyitray, Béla Lázár, Tamás Szana, etc. 7 Lyka, Károly: Nagybánya jubileuma. [The Jubilee of Nagybánya.] In: Művészet 1912, 251-255. (Hereinafter: Lyka 1912.) 8 "... none of them ever received a word of reproach from them (i.e. the masters) for his painting taking a different course from theirs... (this exhibition also) shows some pictures of the pupils which are certainly in radical contradiction to the conviction of the other Nagybánya painters." Cf. Lyka 1912, op.cit. 255. 9 Lyka, Károly: A nagybányaiak küldetése. [The Mission of the Nagybánya Artists.] In: Magyar Művészet 1925, 6-24. (Hereinafter: Lyka 1925.) 10 "He has drawn on a direct view of nature", he writes analyzing Károly Ferenczy's The Three Magi, "which he could only do because no system, no style was wedged between him and nature... Only without such an adopted system can he give himself fully, without fail in his pictures. Only when he receives the phenomena of the world through the screen of his own feelings and not through the sieve of an external system. That was the conviction of the Nagybánya painters, that is what they called naturalism." Cf. Lyka 1925, op.cit. 20. 11 Lyka 1925, op.cit. 22-23. 12 Lyka 1925, op.cit. 24. 13 Lyka, Károly: Festészeti életünk a Milleniumtól az első világháborúig 1896-1914. [Our Painting from the Millenium to the First World War 1896-1914.] Budapest 1953. 14 "...Károly Lyka's indispensable books on the art of the end of the last and the beginning of this centuries were only published after 1945, but their approach was identical with that of his reviews written around the turn of the century and his studies published between the two world wars." Cf. Németh, Lajos: A magyar századforduló és a művészettörténeti irodalom. [The turn of the century in Hungary and its reflection in art historical literature.] In: Magyar művészet 1890-1919, vol. I. Ed. Németh, Lajos. Budapest 1981, 23. 15 Nagybányai Jubiláris Képkiállítás [Jubilee Exhibition of Nagybánya Painters.] August 1-31, (1912) Nagybánya. Prefaced by István Réti. Its precedent was his article Tizennégy év a nagybányai festőiskola életéből [Fourteen years in the life of the Nagybánya painters colony] in the October 24, 1909, issue of Nagybánya és Vidéke. 16 Réti 19942 op.cit. 9. 17 Later Réti made it a point several times to explain that Hollósy's art pedagogical method was a spontaneous and individual method which could not be continued when he left Nagybánya. Teaching at the Free School was based on the principles formulated by János Thorma in his treatise A művészeti nevelésről [On Art Education] (in 1899 a separate issue of Nagybánya és Vidéke also in Nagybánya). 18 Réti 1994

2 op.cit. 30. 19 Réti appends in a note the definitions of Naturalism and Impressionism, which are essential constituents of his esthetics: "The devout observation of nature's phenomena that affect our eyes, total absorption in this with the possible subordination of our selves is naturalism... To understand the