Hajós György: Heroes' Square - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)

A LONG VIEW OF THE EXHIBITION HALL IN WATERCOLOUR

ment, which was submitted to prime minister Sándor Wekerle as well as the minister of religion and public education and the minister of commerce, the committee gave voice to the warning that no more than two pictures should be hung one above the other, that is because, as the document observes, “overcrowding, the covering of walls up to the ceiling, the tasteless hoarding of pictures whose various effects cancel each other out reduces an exhibition to the level of a garage sale”. They identified the iron-framed glass-structures in Munich, Paris and Madrid as examples to be followed. Based on the number of exhibiting artists they deemed necessary a floorspace of 900 square metres for the sculptures and a wall-surface of 600 metres in length for the paintings inside a fully detached building.

The government approved the proposal, and as early as October of the same year the minister of commerce already announced that the treasury was ready to make 300,000 forints available for the project. Although the appointment of the building site proved to be a controversial issue, the Fine Arts Association upheld its reasons as spelled out in the original proposal: “Andrássy út is where the crowds of visitors flow into the City Park. The public seeking entertainment is transported here by three different transport services. Here, at the end of Andrássy út, in the area bordered by Stefánia út, Aréna út and Nagy János utca, whose

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