Challenging the Canon
Challenging the Canon

Summary/Abstract: Magyar vadak Párizstól Nagybányáig 1904–1914 (Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya 1904–1914). An Exhibition in the Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, 22 March–20 August 2006. Catalogues in Hungarian and in English edited by Krisztina Passuth and György Szûcs. Hungarian National Gallery, 333 pp. and 246 pp., respectively. The chances are that recent exhibitions at the Hungarian National Gallery will ultimately change the Hungarian canon through the re-evaluation of wellknown masters, together with the discovery, or rediscovery, of others who had been suppressed or simply off the radar screen for at least half a century. It will certainly require several years, perhaps decades, before the rest of the world acknowledges that Hungary too has produced remarkable artists whose works are worthy of recognition and deserve to be collected—even in Paris, London and New York, traditionally the most important and wealthiest of the world’s art centres. The present writer is cautiously optimistic that this will eventually be achieved, despite the many obstacles still to be overcome. Investors tend to pursue a taste that has been sanctioned by expert opinion, and more investment means more shows and greater public awareness. Nor is it entirely a matter of money. The now widespread interest in Scandinavian and Finnish art has pushed up prices; that process began when some visionary curators began to put the finest Scandinavian masters on show (e.g. the exhibition “Northern Light,” New York, 1982). [...]

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