Taking skyscrapers home to America
An interview with American diplomat, Nancy Goodman Brinker
MúzeumCafé 19.
– Was it hard for you to leave all that behind when in 2001 George W. Bush appointed you ambassador to Hungary?
– On the contrary. I could hardly wait to be in Budapest and see Hungary with its progressive spirit, represent my country and promote diplomatic relations between the two countries. In addition, with regard to the fight against breast cancer there were urgent tasks waiting for me.
– You had to postpone your trip because of the New York terror attack. You would have set off on 9/11.
– The terror attack shocked America, a bewildered complete silence engulfed everything. Air traffic stopped, fear determined everyday life and it was difficult to leave your loved ones behind. I was delayed by two weeks. I would have wanted to present paintings by noted American women artists, the masterpieces of Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan and Joan Elan Davis, but the valuable canvasses could not travel in an emergency situation, due to the strict safety measures. Thus a tradition, the continuity of the so-called Art in Embassies project came to a halt. On the initiative of the State Department, since 1964 American works of art have been touring American representative offices abroad. At the time a gentleman was introduced to me. I immediately heard legends about him as to his expertise in the field of art, wide-ranging contacts and his thorough knowledge of the US and Britain. Later István Rozsics became the most important person during the nearly two years I spent in Hungary. He recommended paintings by Imre Bak, András Bernát, László Fehér, Károly Klimó, István Nádler, Tamás Soós, Attila Szűcs and Gábor Záborszky. Art proved to be the strongest link and the most enjoyable and authentic interpreter between our two cultures. I managed to learn some thirty words. Learning Hungarian properly seemed hopelessly difficult. I had been living in Budapest for two months when one chilly November day István Rozsics and I were walking in Falk Miksa Street looking at the shop windows. I suddenly saw a landscape of New York. I was rooted to the spot, fixated by the spectacle. I saw again the city which had suffered the tragedy in a water-colour painted in 1935. The city was calm, monumental and sublime. It stirred me and the absence upset me. It was a picture by Aba-Novák. I keep an eye on what art fairs and the world’s large auction houses have on offer. I come to Budapest several times a year to go round galleries and visit the studios of artists who have since become my friends. Obtaining new treasures gives me a special pleasure, but I never miss asking the opinion of my permanent experts, Éva Forgács, an art historian who lives and teaches in the US, and Mariann Gergely, a curator at the Hungarian National Gallery. We get together twice a year to discuss the collection and how significant certain works are themselves and how they fit the whole.
– Could a Hungarian artist really acquire fame like Picasso or Monet? Johan van Dam, a Dutch cultural anthropologist and art collector who lives in Hungary says that although of an international standard Hungarian art can never reach that level.
– I don’t agree, though there is still a lot to do. After the years of isolation Hungarian masterpieces must be shown again. What cannot be seen does not exist. It’s a great step forward when a complete Hungarian collection is presented in a museum, like the collection of 350 works of art by 100 artists, including Szinyei, Munkácsy and Moholy-Nagy, compiled by former United States ambassador to Hungary Nicolas Salgo, who had Hungarian roots. It was bestowed by his inheritors entirely to the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum, the collection of the Rutgers University in New Jersey. I’ve recently seen the collection of László Vass in Veszprém. The setting is a fine example how a high standard, purely elegant environment can be created for a high-quality compilation. Perhaps one day I’ll have a place like that.