Csontváry

Fülszöveg

Csontváry
LAJOS NÉMETH
The art of Tivadar Csontváry is the most original achievement in Hungarian painting. He was born in the same year as van Gogh, and in their fate and to some degree in their prophetic personality there is an affinity between them. He, too, descended to the depths of the human soul in his struggles to overcome his own demons. Some of his artistic problems—such as .the reconciliation of Divisionism and decorative synthesis—were also the concern of French Post-Impressionism. The naive tone of some of his works make him the Hungarian counterpart of Henri Rousseau; his symbolism is reminiscent of James Ensor and Surrealism; his tragic view of mankind suggests Expressionism. Yet he cannot be identified with any of these trends. His works are no mere eclectic summary of his early pictorial aspirations, for Csontváry belongs to the artists who have created a personal style. He was bound to his contemporaries by innumerable ties. The bushman who painted the walls of... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Csontváry
LAJOS NÉMETH
The art of Tivadar Csontváry is the most original achievement in Hungarian painting. He was born in the same year as van Gogh, and in their fate and to some degree in their prophetic personality there is an affinity between them. He, too, descended to the depths of the human soul in his struggles to overcome his own demons. Some of his artistic problems—such as .the reconciliation of Divisionism and decorative synthesis—were also the concern of French Post-Impressionism. The naive tone of some of his works make him the Hungarian counterpart of Henri Rousseau; his symbolism is reminiscent of James Ensor and Surrealism; his tragic view of mankind suggests Expressionism. Yet he cannot be identified with any of these trends. His works are no mere eclectic summary of his early pictorial aspirations, for Csontváry belongs to the artists who have created a personal style. He was bound to his contemporaries by innumerable ties. The bushman who painted the walls of caves he felt to be his kinsman; in his psychotic megalomania he was driven to wrestle with Raphael; his decorative interplay of lines recalls the Japanese; and his exuberant fantastic colours, Persian miniatures. Thus he had an equally close relationship to the great epochs in the history of art and to his own age.
The present monograph follows the course of Csontváry's life, from his mythical message of a vocation to the creation of the large monumental canvases. In the analysis of the works special attention is given to the aesthetic problems which flow from the peculiarities of Csontváry's lifework. The author is Lajos Németh, an eminent scholar of modern Hungarian painting and a well-known art historian. The roots of Csontváry's art are revealed for the first time in the light of a scientific method, offering an explanation of the master's strange world.
The book contains 49 colour plates and 77 black-and-white illustrations. Vissza