American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy @ Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

October 5, 2024 – January 26, 2025

André Kertész (Kertész Andor) 

(American, born Hungary, 1894–1985)

Martinique, 1970, printed 1972 

Gelatin silver print, 16 5/8 x 20 5/8 x 1 1/2 in. 

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 

Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, 2018.206 

André de Dienes

(American, born Hungary, 1913–1985)

Marilyn Monroe, ca. 1949

Gelatin silver print, 30 5/8 x 24 5/8 in.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 

Adolph D. Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2021.598,

Photograph © Andre De Dienes/MUUS Collection 

László Kondor 

(American, born Hungary, 1940) 

Boys with U.S. Flag, Midway Park, Chicago, 1968, printed 1995 

Gelatin silver print, 13 x 19 in. 

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 

Kathleen Boone Samuels Memorial Fund, 2021.83 

© 2024 Estate of Laszlo Kondor 

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) announces its upcoming exhibition, American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy. The exhibition fills a missing chapter in art history and is slated to be the most comprehensive exhibition to examine the geographical reach and extensive influence that Hungarian American photographers have had on 20th-century photography.

American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy is organized for VMFA and curated by the museum’s Director and CEO Alex Nyerges. The exhibition, which is co-curated by Károly Kincses, founding director of the Hungarian Museum of Photography, debuted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary.

American, born Hungary features more than 170 works and related ephemera from 33 photographers. “The photography of Americans born in Hungary is an important, but very under-told, story,” Nyerges said. “As one of the country’s top 10 comprehensive art museums, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is positioned, and even called upon, to help lead the way in telling it.”

Hungarian American artists transformed modern photography in the U.S. Some introduced radical, experimental photographic techniques while others brought with them innovative approaches to photojournalism, advertising and fashion photography. Their encounters with different facets of American life further shaped their approaches to the medium, ultimately leading them to contribute in robust ways to modern photography.

The wealth of intellectual and artistic talent that departed Hungary between the end of World War I and the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 is almost unprecedented in size and effect. This historic emigration included legendary symphony conductors George Szell and Eugene Ormandy, composer Béla Bartók, award-winning film directors Michael Curtiz and Alexander Korda and world-renowned architects and designers Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, who is also a featured photographer in the exhibition.

Included in American, born Hungary are works by notable photographers such as André Kertész (Kertész Andor), Martin Munkácsi (Mermelstein Márton), Nickolas Muray (Mandl Miklós) and György Kepes, along with less familiar names whose photos are instantly recognizable. Robert Capa (Freidmann Endre Ernö), for example, was a pioneer of modern photojournalism whose photos of Omaha Beach on D-Day are among the most renowned images of World War II.

The exhibition examines Hungarian photographers working during the period of political turmoil in their home country during the early 20th century, before the photographers began their emigration to European capitals such as Paris, where surrealism evolved in the 1930s; Berlin, where modernism flourished; and in Dessau, Germany, where the utopian Bauhaus art school was a haven for the post-World War I avant-garde.

The focus of American, born Hungary, however, is the impact of Hungarian-born artists on photography in the United States, especially in urban centers such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Through stunning images, the exhibition shows the profound impact of this group of photographers who explored their new country with sensitivity, rigor and insight.

Paula Wright (Paula Weisz) 

(American, born Hungary, 1930–2015)

Central Park, New York, Winter Reflections, ca. 1960

Gelatin silver print, 20 5/8 x 16 5/8 x 1 1/2 in.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,

Kathleen Boone Samuels Memorial Fund, 2020.133

André Kertész (Kertész Andor) 

(American, born Hungary, 1894–1985)

Lexington Avenue at 44th Street, New York, 1937, printed later

Gelatin silver print, 20 5/8 x 16 5/8 x 1 1/2 in. 

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 

Gift of Judy Haselton, 2018.472

André Kertész (Kertész Andor) 

(American, born Hungary, 1894–1985)

Fire Escape, New York, 1949

Gelatin silver print, 24 5/8 x 20 5/8 x 1 1/2 in. 

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,

Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2014.174

Highlights include works by tailor and photographer John Albok (Albók János), whose scenes of leisure in Central Park and the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair received critical acclaim; Moholy-Nagy, whose “New Bauhaus” sought to establish the Windy City as a design incubator; André de Dienes, whose portraits of cinema’s icons, including Marilyn Monroe, helped fuel Hollywood’s Golden Age; and photojournalists, such as László Kondor, who documented the Vietnam War and social injustice in America.

Featured Photographers

Photographic works by these artists are featured in the exhibition American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy: Lucien Aigner (Aigner László), John Albok (Albók János), Anna Barna, Ferenc Berko, Cornell Capa (Freidmann Kornell), Robert Capa (Freidmann Endre Ernö), Helene Deutch, Stephen Deutch, André de Dienes, Orshi Drozdik, Arnold Eagle, Jolán Gross-Bettelheim, Francis Haar (Haár Ferenc), Nicholas Ház, Béla Kalman, György Kepes, André Kertész (Kertész Andor), Ylla (Camilla Koffler), László Kondor, Balthazar Korab, György Lőrinczy, László Moholy-Nagy, Martin Munkácsi (Mermelstein Márton), Nickolas Muray (Mandl Miklós), Marion Palfi, Sylvia Plachy, Emeri P. Révész-Biró (Révész Imre, Biró Irma), Michael Simon (Simon Mihály, Cornel Somogy, Marcel Sternberger, Max Thorek (Torok Maximilian), László Josef Willinger and Paula Wright (Weisz Paula).

Traveling Exhibition

Organized by VMFA and curated by the museum’s Director and CEO Alex Nyerges, and by founding Director of the Hungarian Museum of Photography Károly Kincses American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy first appeared at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary, from April 5 to August 29, 2024. From Oct. 5, 2024, to Jan. 26, 2025, the exhibition will be on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Following its run at VMFA, the exhibition will travel to the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, where it will be on view from Sept. 26, 2025, to March 1, 2026.

Exhibition Catalogue

The exhibition catalogue, American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy, is published by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and distributed by Yale University Press. The 360-page catalogue features more than 170 photographic images and includes essays by Alex Nyerges and Karoly Kincses, as well as as an introduction by Robert Gurbo, trustee, Estate of André Kertész and president of The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation. American, born Hungary will be available to purchase in the VMFA Shop and online from Yale University Press.

VMFA - VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

200 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd., Richmond, VA 23220

www.vmfa.museum

Janos Szasz, Gabor Kerekes at Hotshoe Gallery, London

Modern Visions: Hungarian Photography Then and Now
János Szász and Gábor Kerekes
HotShoe Gallery, London 
Curated by Bill Kouwenhoven
Through 9 July 2011 

Poster of the exhibition. Courtesy HotShoe Gallery

Photograph by Gábor Kerekes, Stone Ball, 1992 © Gábor Kerkes 

It is impossible to imagine the history of photography without the contributions of a vast array of extraordinary talents from Hungary. As the cliché went, “You don’t have to be Hungarian to be a great photographer—but it helps.”

Hotshoe, contemporary photography gallery in London, presents two bodies of work from two photographers whose oeuvre spans the mid 20th Century to the present day, JANOS SZASZ and GABOR KEREKES. Their work epitomizes the Hungarian talent for innovation and artistic expression that continues the great tradition established by Brassaï, André Kertész, Martin Munkácsi, Robert Capa and László Moholy-Nagy.

János Szász, whose work remained largely unknown outside of Hungary until recently when it was heralded as the most important artistic discovery of Pécs2010 and called “a true find, one to re-write the annals of European photography” by photography historian Ulrich Rüter (formerly of the F.C. Gundlach Foundation), was born in Pécs and trained as a lawyer graduating with honours. Under the Socialist regimes of the post-war era he was unable to practice law and turned to photography and supported himself as a sign-painter. 

JANOS SZASZ

János Szász, School Ball, 1965. Photo © János Szász Estate 

Both photographers moved by stages from landscapes in the case of Janos Szasz, and architectural subjects in the case of Gabor Kerekes through distinct forms of Modernism inflected by the dynamic energies of Molholy-Nagy with his radical use of perspective and reduction to graphic abstractions. Each photographer, too, in his way experimented with manipulations of photographic techniques and materials with Gabor Kerekes taking over in the 1990s from where Janos Szász left off in the 1980s.

Since his discovery in the West after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gabor Kerekes has been heralded as the master who brought post war Hungarian photography to light.  His work, which combines the Hungarian love for technology and dynamism, has been widely collected in Europe and America and Gabor Kerekes as one of the most important living Hungarian photographers. Regardless of whichever process he uses, his images reflect his great forebears and the forceful vision of János Szász. As such, Gabor Kerekes represents a turning point in the history of Hungarian photography and a bridge between the old and the new Hungary.

Both Janos Szasz and Gabor Kerekes can be seen as having continued this great Hungarian tradition of innovation and artistic articulation in photography throughout the difficult years of the 20th century that saw so many changes in Hungarian society and politics. Their work can also be seen as inspirational to the younger generation of Hungarian photographers now coming of age 20 years after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Curated by Bill Kouwenhoven

HOTSHOE GALLERY 
29-31 Saffron Hill, Farringdon, London EC1N 8SW
www.hotshoegallery.com

Zsolt Bodoni, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles - Yesterday’s Heroes, Tomorrow’s Fools - Exhibition

Zsolt Bodoni

Yesterday’s Heroes, Tomorrow’s Fools

Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles

May 2 – June 6, 2009

Nicodim Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by Hungarian artist, Zsolt Bodoni (born 1977) and his first US solo show.

Zsolt Bodoni’s darkly brooding paintings are tangibly atmospheric. First elevated and then punished by the vigorous sweeps of brushwork he uses to wash his landscapes and shadowy interiors, the works readily evoke the violent struggles of Hungary’s chequered past. For Zsolt Bodoni, the tangled politics of his region’s history are especially poignant. As an ethnic Hungarian growing up in Romania during the last years of Ceausescu’s dictatorship, (Zsolt Bodoni was born in Transylvania, a province that belonged to Hungary during the time of the Austro Hungarian Empire, but was then given over to Romania by the French in 1920), Zsolt Bodoni was part of a unique generation that knew communism in childhood and experienced its disintegration and the transition into democracy in early adulthood; but he was also part of a minority group that suffered - if not persecution - then discrimination at the hands of the fiercely nationalistic Ceausescu.

If he had been born a century earlier, life would have been very different for the young artist - a fact he was constantly reminded of during his growing up, surrounded as he was by the imperialistic Austro Hungarian architecture that dominates Transylvania. Yet more so even than the architecture that surrounded him, it was the monument that left its mark and has continued to both trouble and inspired him. For the past year, Zsolt Bodoni has become increasingly preoccupied by the idea of the monument in his painting. His new body of dramatic works address the commanding physicality of a type of sculpture intended to inspire or affirm the prowess of a victorious nation or movement; but they also deal with the ideological implications that accompany the decision to erect, remove or replace a particular figure or symbol in a key public place.

Looking back as an adult on the changes that swept through Hungary and Transylvania, the artist was struck by the fact that each ‘empire’ brought with it its own heroes: The Hungarians celebrated their founding Magyars with statues of their warrior leaders and the ‘turul’ – a mythical, falcon-like bird said to have lead them to the land that became Hungary. Much later, leading Imperial figures such as Andrassy, the patriotic general, and Horthy, (regent of the Kingdom of Hungary in the interwar years), were immortalised in stone and bronze – only they too were to prove as mortal as the rest of us, for when the communists came, the bronze was melted down and re-cast to commemorate the idols of the new state.

Yet again these new ‘heroes’ were deposed and decried as impostors. In the case of the gargantuan statue of Stalin, erected in Budapest in 1951, the deposition occurred only five years after its grand unveiling; and in the most dramatic fashion. On October 23, 1956, the year of the unsuccessful Hungarian uprising, around two hundred thousand Hungarians gathered in Budapest to demonstrate in sympathy for the Poles. The Hungarian Revolutionaries broadcast sixteen demands over the radio, one of them being the demolition of Stalin’s statue. Over one hundred thousand protestors set about the statue’s destruction and ‘Stalin’ was ripped from the pedestal leaving only his boots behind.

While Zsolt Bodoni’s works are inspired by a strongly narrative element grounded in the context of his own personal experience and history, much of his painting is devoid of figuration and extraneous detail. Large areas are left undefined, empty of fuss and unnecessary congestion. Zsolt Bodoni isn’t frightened to leave these dark holes for us to peer into and struggle through. His sweeping brushstrokes pick us up again if we lose ourselves for too long, but the shadows that remain a constant fixture of his paintings, are never very far behind us.

MIHAI NICODIM GALLERY

944 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, CA 90012

www.nicodimgallery.com