Arranging Within Strict Limits
The Revitalised Czóbel Museum in Szentendre
“If my work has received some recognition, that is not an accumulation of official laurel leaves, and anyway perhaps failures more richly characterise an oeuvre.” Thus wrote Béla about himself Czóbel in 1946. Success versus the lack of it – it’s worth pondering, precisely in his case, since he apparently had less problem with the world than did Hungary’s avant-garde, or its ‘counter-avant-garde’.
The greatest success was, of course, to find the authentic place of spiritual peace, Szentendre, which besides Paris provided him with a true asylum, permanent peace, a wife who was a painter and a number of muses – a small “cultivated garden” to counter the barbaric, dangerous and wild marshland. His success was to have realised his own micro-cosmos in Szentendre.
The core collection of Szentendre’sCzóbel Museum is from the artist’s last year, 1974, and is essentially based on late works from his studio, which quietly blended into the conflict-avoiding taste of the consolidated Kádár era – into the milieu which is so precisely reflected in the documentary about his funeral screened at the end of the exhibition. His will and donations by his daughter Lisa somewhat modified the preferred proportions of that late Szentendre period, but the essential dramaturgy has been preserved.
Czóbel attained the calm plateau of artistic skill, discerning taste and modern compositional approach. He followed his path with imposing strength and carefully portioned steps. Perhaps there is no other Hungarian painter with longevity who remained on the desired level after having attained the heights early in life. For example, AurélBernáth tumbled down, IstvánCsók slid down and RóbertBerény plunged into a precipice. Great strength of mind, wry self-recognition and the divine talent of maintaining a standard are needed for someone to be unable to create weak paintings beyond a certain point. He sometimes tried and, as if attempting to leap over his stubbornly persevering shadow, recalled the former record. He rendered the stripy motif contesting space in his 1968 Venus of Szent-endre and increased the intrinsically glowing colours in Mimi of 1971.
Yet he failed to go beyond the record. Even the reinterpreted Czóbel could not create a miracle. Just as the great revolts, the belief in changing the world and the moments of hope all failed, so was extinguished the unique innovative instinct, with which he approached the craters of archetypal ferocity. Thus the curator does not point towards a happy ending, yet there is no tragedy. It can be understood that after some time Czóbel ceased existing as a Great Artist. He rema-
ined only a Good Artist. That is still a huge achievement in this country.