Lajos Tihanyi
Lajos Tihanyi | |
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The Eight (Nyolcak) |
Lajos Tihanyi (29 October 1885 – 11 June 1938) was a Hungarian painter and lithographer who achieved international renown working outside his country, primarily in Paris, France. After emigrating in 1919, he never returned to Hungary, even on a visit.
Born in
After the fall of the
In Paris, Tihanyi gradually shifted to more abstract styles in his work. His paintings and lithographs are held by the
Early life and education
Lajos Tihanyi was born in Budapest in 1885 to a Hungarian-Jewish family in 1885. He had a younger sister Berta. Due to
Career
Tihanyi was largely self-taught and started working in Budapest. As a young man, he studied in the summer of 1906 at the
He helped introduce the
Tihanyi and others of the "Neos" developed into the Hungarian avant-garde. Károly Kernstok was considered a leader, and others were Béla Czóbel, Vilmos Perlrott-Csaba and Béla Iványi Grünwald, and Sándor Ziffer. Some had already been to Paris, where they were influenced by the work of French painters such as Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse.[3]
At the age of 24, Tihanyi was one of
The Eight were part of the radical intellectual movements in the early 20th century Budapest, which attracted new artists in literature and music as well. Among the new writers and composers were
(Tihanyi, together with Ziffer, Czóbel and Berény, was considered one of the Hungarian Fauves. This aspect of their work was featured together with pieces by French artists in a 2006 exhibition at the Hungarian National Gallery.)[5]
The writer and journalist Lajos Kassák founded A Tett (Action) in 1915, and later Ma (Today); these published articles on literature and art, and provided reproductions of some work. They featured Tihanyi, who had a solo exhibit in their offices in 1915. Before the war, he was recognized for his independent creativity.[1]
By the end of World War I, the leading art style in Hungary shifted to the radical movement of Activism, in which Tihanyi also participated. The Activists pushed the cubist and expressionist innovations into a radical direction. In addition to Tihanyi, masters were József Nemes Lampérth and Béla Uitz. Béni Ferenczy's sculpture, Standing Boy, also showed the influence of Cubism.[3]
1919 and emigration
Tihanyi was one of several younger artists who had achieved recognition before the revolution of 1919.
Tihanyi worked and lived for the rest of his life abroad, first briefly in
After that time, Tihanyi moved on to Paris, where he lived most of his life. Because of his reluctance to sell his paintings, in his early years abroad, he sometimes relied on some financial help from his father, who owned a coffee shop in Budapest.[1] In Berlin, Tihanyi met the Hungarian writer Gyórgy Bölöni, the 12-years-younger artist Gyula Halász (later known as the photographer Brassaï), and other artists and writers.[10]
Paris
By 1924 Tihanyi settled in Paris, where many fellow artists and writers also migrated; part of the Hungarian circle, he got to know other foreigners in Paris, including Americans, such as the writer Henry Miller.[1][11] His portraits, such as of Bölöni (1912) and the painter Jacques de la Fregonnière (1928), represent some of his artistic circle. He was also friends with the photographer André Kertész, whom he introduced to the Parisian community. At one point, Tihanyi, Brassaï and Gyula Zilzer all lived in the Hotel Terrasse.[1]
Working in the Constructivist and Expressionist modes of his activism, Tihanyi painted and drew many of his friends, mostly fellow foreigners: among his subjects were the American composer
When Tihanyi's nephew Ervin Marton came to Paris in 1937, the painter introduced the younger man to many of his friends, bringing him within his circle. Marton became most prominent as a photographer after World War II, although he also worked in graphic arts and sculpture. He lived the remainder of his life in Paris.
Tihanyi died an early death in 1938, not yet 53. He was buried in
Brassaï and Bölöni arranged for storage of art works by Hungarians in Paris during World War II, including many by Tihanyi. Their support of Hungarian art continued after the war. Together with Kertész, Brassaï and de la Frégonnière in 1970 helped transfer much of Tihanyi's work to the Hungarian National Gallery, founded in 1957.[1][12]
With fellow painter Bertalan Pór, Tihanyi figures prominently as a fictionalized character in Cafe Europa: An Edna Ferber Mystery, by Ed Ifkovic, which deals with 1914 Budapest.
Exhibits
- 1920, solo exhibit in Vienna[1]
- 1921, solo exhibit in Berlin[1]
- 1973, Tihanyi Lajos emlékkiálitása (Memorial exhibition), Hungarian National Gallery[1]
- 1991–1992, Standing in the Storm: The Hungarian Avant-Garde from 1908–1930, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California[13]
- 2004, Modernisms: European Graphic Art 1900–1930, Hungarian National Gallery, June 18 – September 12, 2004[6]
- 2006, Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya, 1904–1914, 21 March—30 July 2006, Hungarian National Gallery[14]
Legacy
- 2010, A Nyolcak (The Eight): A Centenary Exhibition, 10 December 2010 – 27 March 2011, Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs[15]
- 2012, Lajos Tihanyi – A bohème painter in Budapest, Berlin and Paris, 20 April – 20 August 2012, KOGART Haz, Budapest[16]
- 2012, The Eight. Hungary's Highway in the Modern (Die Acht. Ungarns Highway in die Moderne), 12 September – 2 December 2012, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Wien, collaboration with Museum of Fine Arts and Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest.[17]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Valerie Majoros, "Lajos Tihanyi and his friends in the Paris of the nineteen-thirties" Archived 2015-10-18 at the Wayback Machine, French Cultural Studies, 2000, Vol. 11:387, Sage Publications, accessed 30 January 2013
- ^ "Munich in Hungarian, Hungarian Artists in Munich 1850–1914, 2 Oct 2009 – Jan 2010" Archived 2010-06-30 at the Wayback Machine, Hungarian National Gallery, accessed 6 Sep 2010
- ^ a b c d "Painting and Sculpture in the First Half of 20th Century" Archived 2010-05-31 at the Wayback Machine, Hungarian National Gallery, accessed 15 Sep 2010
- ISBN 0-521-45695-9
- ^ The 'Hungarian Fauves' from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914 Archived 2013-05-15 at the Wayback Machine, Culturekiosque, 2006
- ^ a b c Kristina Passuth, "Contemporary and Kindred: review of 'Modernisms'" Archived 2011-06-15 at the Wayback Machine, Hungarian Quarterly, No. 175/7, 2004
- ^ Krisztina Passuth, "Hungarian Art Outside Hungary: Berlin in the 1920s" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Hungarian Studies, 1994, Vol.19, No. 1-2, 1994, accessed 2 February 2013
- ^ Passuth (1994), "Hungarian Art Outside Hungary", pp. 128–129
- ^ Passuth (1994), "Hungarian Art Outside Hungary", p. 132
- ^ Brassai, Letters to My Parents Archived 2023-03-16 at the Wayback Machine, University of Chicago Press, 1995, p. 241, accessed 6 Sep 2010
- ^ “Tihanyi, Lajos” Archived 2011-01-01 at the Wayback Machine, Terminartors, accessed 3 Sep 2010
- ^ Kincses, Károly. "Brassaï: The Hungarian Documents. A Chronology in Letters 1940–1984" Archived 2011-10-12 at the Wayback Machine, The Hungarian Quarterly (188/2007), pp. 58–84, accessed 9 September 2010
- ^ Standing in the Storm: The Hungarian Avant-Garde from 1908–1930 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Hungarian Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1-2, 1994, accessed 2 February 2013
- ^ Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya, 1904–1914: Exhibition in the Hungarian National Gallery, 21 March–30 July 2006, Kristina Passuth and György Szǔcs, Lóránd Bereczky, 2006
- ISBN 9639873241
- ^ Lajos Tihanyi – A bohème painter in Budapest, Berlin and Paris, 20 April – 20 August 2012, KOGART Haz website, accessed 29 January 2013
- ^ Bécs, Kunstforum: Die Acht. Ungarns Highway in die Moderne, 2012, Bank Austria Kunstforum, accessed 29 January 2013
Further reading
- Fauves Hongrois. (1904–1914). Paris: Editions Biro. 2008. (Catalog in French) ISBN 978-2-35119-047-0
- Gergely Barki, Evelyn Benesch, ISBN 9783422071575
- Gergely Barki, Zoltán Rockenbauer: Die Acht – Der Akt. Ausstellungskatalog. Budapest: Balassi Institut, 2012. p. 112. ISBN 9789638958341
- Ed Ifkovic, Cafe Europa: An Edna Ferber Mystery. Scottsdale, Ariz.: Poisoned Pen Press, 2015 ISBN 9781464200489
External links
- Andre Kertesz, photo – includes Lajos Tihanyi between two women, Le Dôme, Paris
- "Lajos Tihanyi", Hungarian National Gallery (in English)
- "Lajos Tihanyi", Fine Arts in Hungary: from the beginning to the mid-20th century, website
- "Lajos Tihanyi", Terminartors