The exhibition presents a selection of works by Hungarian female artists from the first half of the twentieth century; visitors can view more than 130 works by sixty female artists, arranged both chronologically and thematically. Alongside the better-known artists – Margit Anna, Valéria Dénes, Noémi Ferenczy, Ilka Gedő, Margit Gráber, Erzsébet Korb, Elza Kövesházi Kalmár, Anna Lesznai, Erzsébet Schaár, Piroska Szántó and Júlia Vajda – the exhibition also showcases works by numerous lesser-known artists (such as the ‘New Eight’ art group). The exhibition also features works by artists – Anna Beöthy-Steiner, Jolán Gross-Bettelheim, Anton Prinner and Judit Reigl – who sought artistic fulfilment abroad and are now internationally renowned.

In recent years, there has been a growing focus on the body of work created by Hungarian woman artists, but this is the first time a Hungarian museum has presented such a large-scale exhibition covering a wide range of perspectives. At the end of the nineteenth century, the art world still held the fundamental conviction that only men could be artists, while women artists were, at best, amateurs. Changing this mindset – which contemporaries sought to bolster with pseudo-scientific arguments – required the elimination of prejudices, the dismantling of institutional barriers and the transformation of social roles: a serious challenge. By the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there were already several well-trained woman artists working in Hungary, who were making their mark in various spheres of the art world – at artists’ colonies, exhibitions and within artists’ groups. For a long time to come, they had no say in the direction of the art world, as the view that art was linked to male genius persisted, but change was underway: in the decades that followed, female artists became increasingly assertive in demanding a place for themselves.

The central theme of the exhibition is the presentation of symbolic and real occupation of space: women’s emergence from the domestic sphere into the public sphere, their mastery of major genres and techniques not originally reserved for them, and the expression of their artistic identity. In a significant proportion of the themes of the works created between 1900 and 1950 – interiors, nudes, portraits, mothers with children, and cityscapes – the original perspectives of female artists, distinct from those of their male counterparts, are clearly evident.

 The exhibition features works by well-known artists such as Margit Anna, Valéria Dénes, Noémi Ferenczy, Erzsébet Forgács Hann, Ilka Gedő, Jolán Gross-Bettelheim, Józsa Járitz, Erzsébet Korb, Anna Lesznai, Eszter Mattioni, Anton Prinner, Judit Reigl, Erzsébet Schaár, Lili Sztehlo, Piroska Szántó, Júlia Vajda and Erzsébet Vaszkó. However, the exhibition does not merely seek to draw attention to well-known oeuvres; one of its keys goals is to restore to the art-historical canon those artists who have now been partly or entirely forgotten – artists who were recognised in their own time, yet whose work was subsequently pushed into the background – such as Ilona Baranyai, Rózsi Bacher, Mária Barta, Alice Endresz, Lenke Földes, Margit Kampis, Kata Kalivoda, Vilma Kiss, Mária Kósa, Erzsébet Lóránt and Magda Zemplényi.

The exhibition is being held as part of the Liszt Festival International Cultural Festival.

Curators: Dr Anna Kopócsy, lecturer at the Department of Art History, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, and Zsófia Drienyovszki, art historian at the Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery.

1/5

×