Vilmos Aba-Novák Retrospective in the Debrecen MODEM
MúzeumCafé 5.
Crowds have been drawn to the Hungarian town of Debrecen since the retrospective of Vilmos Aba-Novák, known as the ‘Barbarian Genius’, opened in the Modern and Contemporary Art Centre. MODEM is the largest and most modern cultural centre in eastern Hungary. Nearly a thousand square metres has been partitioned into smaller units which feature Aba-Novák’s former studio as well as a remake of the Hungarian pavilion of the 1937 Paris World Exhibition with the painting about French-Hungarian relations for which the painter received the Grand Prize and which, according to tradition, made Picasso, the chair of the jury, exclaim that Aba-Novák was a barbarian genius. “The most expensive Hungarian exhibition of all times!” This advert-like slogan refers to the exhibition’s insurance costs of more than four billion forints. No significant exhibition of this intentionally ignored artist has been held since 1962, when the National Gallery organised one. Now several hundred masterpieces are on display from public and private collections held in more than seventy places in five countries (Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary). The joint efforts of construction engineer Kristóf Kováts, the artist’s grandson, art historian Péter Molnos and the director of MODEM, Gábor Gulyás, have resulted in this fine exhibition which includes drawings kept in the family estate and never before shown publicly (the light-sensitive sheets are behind special, protective glass). In addition, from the archive of New York’s City College, there is a colour film made during the artist’s journey to America in 1935, which is a curiosity not only in Hungary but also internationally.