E. Csorba Csilla: A kamera poétája. Adré Kertész-fotó a Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum gyűjteményeiből (Budapest, 2019)
Korniss Péter: André Kertész kötődései / Péter Korniss: André Kertész’s Attachments
André Kertész’s Attachments Péter Korniss At the exhibition Hungarian Surrealism, held in Szentendre recently, I was happy to discover a statue - in a photograph by André Kertész - which I had never seen but had known for a long time. It is an internationally renowned image with the title Satirical Dancer, also referred to as Grotesque Dancer. It depicts a Hungarian émigré dancer, Magda Förstner, in the studio of another Hungarian, the sculptor István Beöthy, and was taken in 1926. The photo was allegedly intended as a joke, something playful and teasing, and that is why it has everything that was inspired by the atmosphere of that period in Paris: a bit of constructivism and a bit of surrealism - which of course never became Kertész’s own. We see André Kertész in the photograph, as well as why he thought he had to go to Paris. Hungary was confined for him and in that he was not alone. A generation of exceptionally talented photographers, for whom emigration resulted in international fame, set off from this country. But for most of them, due to their family background, it offered even more - their life. Today we often take pride in them and list their names: André Kertész, Robert Capa, Moholy- Nagy, Martin Munkácsi and Brassai, just to mention the greatest. We regard them as ours, but to be honest the feeling was not entirely mutual with all of them - Brassai, for example, would not have anything to do with us. André Kertész was an exception. He left, but he never broke off completely. This exhibition presents photographs almost all taken in France and held in the collections of the Petőfi Literary Museum, the Kassák Museum and the Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute. Here you do not see the internationally famous images, but what was beyond them. I would call them the photography of everyday life. They are pictures by a unique and committed photographer, who I always thought had photography in his blood. 7
