The Artist on a Pedestal

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The exhibition reviews Hungarian art from the foundation of the Pest Art Society in 1839 to the first decade of the 20th century. In doing so, it traces the evolution of the relationship between society and art from the emergence of a consensus to its breakdown, the point where consensus became completely untenable. It traces this evolution from genuine success to the point where success in art became suspect, and the divorce between social recognition and genuine artistic merit became final.

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In addition to the pictures, sculptures and drawings, the decorations awarded to the artists and other personal items and relics are on show: objects which used to be part and parcel of the cult of the artist, from Munkácsy's palette and armchair through the sculptor István Ferenczy's pen-knife and money-weighing scales to a ribbon from the funeral wreath of the painter Károly Lotz. 19th-century interiors are evoked through the placing of heavy drapery here, a standing vase or glass cabinet there; elsewhere, he uses a wall-dividing motif—that well-known element in Historicist architecture, the trompe l'oeil of dividing ledges and wall pillars—which brings the familiar solemnity of actual buildings into the gallery. It also gives a familiar and personal feeling to the whole exhibition. This is due to the fact that Budapest was transformed into a metropolis by the same era, and the visitor experiences the presence of the same spirit and taste day after day by walking through the city centre and its public buildings. What we are confronted with is, thus, our immediate past, the past so vehemently despised, rejected and misunderstood by 20th-century Modernism. This exhibition is the first attempt to actually understand it.

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Ildikó Nagy