Page 8 - 匈牙利当代艺术 - HUngarian Contemporary Art

Johan van Dam

Contemporary art

from Hungary

The present exhibition is a continuation of the Beijing Hungarian Cultural
Institute Gallery’s exhibitions series. I wouldn’t say it is a representation of
contemporary Hungarian art - although a large number of artists were involved
in this show, can’t guarantee a general overview - but on the other hand the
show is able to highlight on trends and traditions in contemporary art – as far
as abstract, geometrical and constructivist art is concerned.

Traditions are closely intertwined with the Central and Eastern European
traditions, which are closely linked with artists as Malevich and Kandinsky,
Chagall and Klee, or Moholy-Nagy, or linked to the attraction towards the
own roots - as was initiated in Hungarian music by Zoltán Kodály and Béla
Bartók - and also had its influence on contemporary artists and contemporary
art. In such a sense Hungarian art has its own traditions and is at the same
time related and influenced by international acknowledged traditions. To give
you an example of those traditions I would present in more detail the picture
shown on this catalogue and its creator. The work by Dezső Korniss is called
“Shepherds” and originates from a series of works dated in the late sixties.
It was from the period of time when abstract art was more or less tolerated
by the Hungarian government. A new generation of young artists came up
and they had ideas of their own. They weren’t painting and sculpting the
traditional way but had an open interest for new ways of expression. Korniss
was a mentor for this generation of artists, not only for the group of artists
who formed the group “Iparterv” but also for youngsters at that time like
József Bartl and István Gy. Molnár.

But let us start at the beginning. Dezső Korniss was born in 1908 in Beszterce
(nowadays Bistrita in Romania). As a child he took private lessons in drawing
and ended up in Budapest to join the Art Academy. In the early 1930’s he visited
Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. It is said he met Vilmos Huszár - a Hungarian
member of the Stijl group formed around Mondrian. He was a member of
several artistic groups and had for instance contact with the painter/writer
Lajos Kassák - who is seen as the founder of constructivism but who is also
indisputably linked to the naissance of the avant-garde, futurism, dadaism,
expressionism, or surrealism in Hungary. Kassák was for long forbidden, then
tolerated but only after he was exhibited at the Denise Rene Gallery in Paris
with the help of Victor Vasarely. János Fajó considers him to be his master.

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