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

notion of impressionism, one has to keep in mind the dual meaning of impression. Impression is the preservation of the first perception, of sudden seeing. This applies in the first place to the fresh perception of a long-lasting phenomenon whose preservation is also the aim of today's synthetic naturalism. For, what else is impression, the sudden and full seeing of the first moment than a synthesis? In this way, naturalism in the right sense actually implies impressionism." 20 Réti, István: A harminc éves Nagybánya. [Nagybánya turns thirty.] In: Magyar Művészet 1926, 305-316, 365-384. (Hereinafter Réti 1926.) 21 Réti 1926, op.cit. 305. 22 Réti 1926, op.cit. 313-314. 23 "Our artists were prevented later, too, by the naturalistic foundations, the veneration of their forefathers rooted deep in them, and their sophisticated optical sensitivity to the truths of nature from surrendering to more recent artistic ideas which were trying to dethrone nature. The only exception is Griinwald in his more recent stylistic experiments." Réti 1926, op.cit. 377. 24 Réti, István: Képalkotó művészet. [Picture-creating Art.] Budapest 1944. (Hereinafter: Réti 1944.) 25 Quoted by Passuth, Krisztina: A Nyolcak festészete [The Painting of the Eight]. Budapest 1967, 19. 26 Réti 1944, op.cit. 18. 27 Réti 1944, op.cit. 23. 28 Réti began writing his book in 1938 when he retired from the Academy of Fine Arts. He completed it in late 1943, but the preparations for printing were interrupted. The first publication (see note 2) of 1954 could only appear with compromises due to the prevailing political and art political conditions: all the sections on historical events of the two world wars and the interwar period and several parts of Réti's art philosophical ideas deemed ideologically undesirable or imprintable were omitted, including the four chapters (Part IV, Chapters V-VIII) in which he formulated his esthetic conception with reference to Hungarian painting in general and the Nagybánya painters in particular, on the basis of Croce's intuition theory. In the second edition of 1994 (see note 2) made as part of the preparations for the Nagybánya Centennial, the editors restored the complete text on the basis of the manuscript preserved in rhe Data Collection of the Hungarian National Gallery and also complemented the chapter titled The list of painters who stayed in Nagybánya with new data. An amply annotated text critical edition, however, remains to be made. 29 Rózsa, Miklós: A magyar impresszionizmus festészete [The Painting of Hungarian Impressionism]. Budapest 1914 30 "...he created the mode of expression which, I think, will always be termed Nagybánya style by Hungarian art history..." Cf. Rózsa op.cit. 104. 31 "That was not comprehended at home (i.e. the law of evolution) by our young revolutionaries and that explains why the external symptoms of the new revolution are so dissimilar and not to their benefit, either - to the symptoms of the Hungarian Impressionist revolution exalted to history today.." Cf. Rózsa op.cit. 254. 32 Rózsa op.cit. 275. It is not expressly the neo, but the avantgarde trends in general that Rózsa condemns, saying in regard to Rippl-Rónai: "Swindlers have multiplied to a frightening extent...And what is most disgusting is that these sans-culottes wanted to drag not only every dissenting opinion but simply every other art under the guillotine... They would have sent their ancestors, their fathers: the Impressionists to the guillotine (although, as Rippl-Rónai writes in his Recollections, »not only did they start from them, but most of them live on them!«), when they ought to know that their ideal example: Cézanne had long utilized the stylistic elements of Impressionism." Cf. Rózsa op.cit. 255. 33 Genthon, István: Az új magyar festőművészet története 1800tól napjainkig [A History of new Hungarian Painting from 1800 to our Day]. Budapest 1935 34 Genthon op.cit. 177. 35 "Hungarian painting pieced together from foreign influences has struck roots in the Hungarian soil that can no longer be torn out...The vivid (at times too lively, servilely adaptive) contacts with abroad have not ceased, but it is to the credit of this great artist that we have a mainstay that keeps abreast of vigorous foreign progress by raising and solving specifically local, Hungarian and at the same time topical contemporary problems. That is the central art historical significance of Ferenczy..." Cf. Genthon op.cit. 194. 36 Genthon, István: Ferenczy Károly. Budapest 1963 37 "In Nagybánya a young painter, Béla Czóbel, showed his fellow painters his new pictures made in Paris (Post-Impressionist works, or more precisely works in Les Fauves style), which provoked long series of debates and eventually started immense fermentation. Ferenczy steered clear of this shockingly new crop. He was far more clever than to believe that art could be anchored by a single style. He knew that sooner or later, youth always triumphs; what he disliked was that the exponents of the new style had not worked it out by its exponents with sweat, blood and toil, but simply transplanted foreign achievements to the Hungarian soil." Cf. Genthon op.cit. 39. 38 Genthon, István: A nagybányai iskola [The Nagybánya School]. In: Szépművészet (Vol. V., Nr. 1.) January 1-8, 1944 39 Lajos Fülep wrote his study in 1916 and presented it first in lectures before some parts of it (the chapters on architecture and sculpture) were published in the March 16, April 16 and May 16 issues of Nyugat. The section on painting, entitled Hungarian Painting, was also published in Nyugat in three 1922 issues (1922, vol.1. 229-243, 353-362, 383-398). The whole treatise was published in a separate volume the next year. Hereinafter the pagination of the 1922 Nyugat publication is cited. 40 "That was when Hungarian painting became »modern«, that is, rooted in the life of its own age, as well as Hungarian, that is, having its specific assignment and working on its solution of its own resources and invention." Cf. Fülep op.cit. 353. "Instead of Szinyei, the work left halfway accomplished has been done by the Nagybánya painters, his rhapsody being followed by regular work." Cf. Fülep op.cit. 357. "Before them, there were only episodes of Hungarian painting from which no development could issue. It has only been a potentiality since the Nagybánya painters solved a common task consistently from the beginning to the end. And since then has it had a living tradition." Cf. Fülep op.cit. 360. "...the most typical and consistent figure of this endeavour, its paragon if you please, was Károly Ferenczy. He systematized the attitude of Nagybánya painting." Cf. Fülep op.cit. 358. 41 Fülep op.cit. 390.