Collecting „Contemporary Art” at the Museum of Fine Arts

collecting “contemporary art” at the Museum of Fine Arts Ferenc Tóth After its foundation in 1896 the Museum of Fine Arts set as one of its priority long-term objectives the establishment of an international contemporary art collection. However, in the various stages of the museum’s history of more than one hundred years the institution followed the artistic output of the modern era through the acquisition of works at varying degrees of intensity. During the fifty years following its founding the museum’s collections were not typically organised into organisational units. During the initial period, and for a long time subsequently, the only such unit was the Department of Prints and Drawings, directed by Simon Meller as head of department. The museum has separately handled the works on paper ever since.1 Hence, the following study will present the acquisition of foreign works—i.e. paintings, sculptures and works of other techniques from the actual art of the various periods—that were added to the collection of the Modern Picture Gallery (later Modern Department, and now the Department of Art after 1800). In exploring this process special emphasis was placed on the individuals who were instrumental in enriching the modern collection. The two most admired individuals of the golden age of the institute, who are steeped in honour, are Károly Pulszky, venerated as the founder of the museum’s core collection, and Elek Petrovics, who is recognised for assembling the collection of Modern French painting, prestigious even by international comparison. It is generally believed that during the period between Pulszky’s purchases and Petrovics entering the scene the development of the collection ground to a halt and following Petrovics’s efforts to fill the gaps in the Modern art material no significant enrichment occurred. A misconception persists even today that after Károly Pulszky’s dismissal (1896) no more purchases were made for the Museum of Fine Arts. However, this is only true in regard to the old material.2 While Pulszky, the first director of the National Picture Gallery, did not enrich the 137 museum with any modern art whatsoever, i.e. the material classified at the time as art after 1800 (this classification is still used in the structure of today’s collection), in the ten years after Pulszky’s dismissal his successors did create a contemporary, international collection the like of which was only rarely seen in the European museums of the time.3 However, these initiatives did not find equal adherents particularly in the decades under Petrovics’s directorship. The distortions created by the prejudices of the past have carried on into the present and can only be rendered perceptible through facts and figures. 1896–1913 Following the resolution passed on the founding of the Museum of Fine Arts every new acquisition of works of art made by the state to enrich public collections was carried out in the interest of the new institution-to-be. Károly Pulszky’s purchases resulted in the creation of old artistic material of a European standard. The next tasks were, therefore, focused on filling the biggest gaps in the collection, primarily by enriching the works of art by modern Hungarian artists, and in tandem with this, increasingly, on purchasing foreign works. The newly appointed staff of experts of the National Picture Gallery were given the task of coordinating the construction work for the new institution, elaborating its organisational structure and procurring works of art. By 1902 an enlarged professional team had been brought together, which was responsible for work pertaining to the collection in the years after 1906, following the inauguration of the building and the start of the Museum of Fine Arts’ operation as an autonomous institution.4 The scope of authority assigned to Ernô Kammerer—who was placed in charge of the preparations in 1896 as an appointed government commissioner—did not change following his appointment as director in 1901. He continued to primarily carry out the technical and organisational tasks that come along with the management of an institution, while Gábor Térey worked as the quasi-general director of all the collections.5 At the outset every “department” in the Museum of Fine Arts was divided into exhibition units with the groups of objects not being ascribed a separate curator.6 The old and modern foreign material as well as the collection of prints and drawings were mainly managed by Térey, while Ernô Kammerer dealt with the Hungarian works and the plaster casts. The technical handling of the collection and organisational work consisting mainly of administrative tasks fell to the assistant curators. From 1900 the budgetary target earmarked increased funding to enable the Museum of Fine Arts to purchase modern works of art.7 Thanks to this the number of foreign works that entered the museum’s holdings increased significantly but more important than their quantity was their quality, which was of an international standard.8 In the years between 1896 and 1906 the muse- 138 um holdings were enriched by a total of 120 “modern” (dated to after 1800) foreign works of art of which 92 were paintings and 28 were sculptures. Of the 120 works 94 (74 paintings and 20 sculptures) were dated to the twenty years prior to their entry into the museum’s collection. The further acquisitions made in the years following the construction of the museum was the achievement of the team of experts that worked under Kammerer and Térey. In the period between 1907 and 1913—which was brought to a close by the appointment of Elek Petrovics as director— the collection was again increased by 273 works (240 paintings and 33 sculptures), of which 150 (118 paintings and 32 sculptures) could be dated to the years after the turn of the century.9 Beginning with the establishment of the museum and including a period of several years following the inauguration of the building there were acquisitions of works by artists such as Wilhelm Leibl, Arnold Böcklin, Franz von Stuck, Fritz von Uhde, Giovanni Segantini, Fernand Khnopff, Ignacio Zuloaga, Anders Zorn, Akseli Gallén-Kallela, Pekka Halonen, Auguste Rodin,10 Constantine Meunier, August Gaul, Égide Rombaux, Jules Lagae, and Max Klinger.11 The material of prints and drawings with outstandingly important works by Whistler, Mucha, Crane, Segantini and Klinger is not included in this list. The majority of these works, which predominantly fit in with fin-de-siècle Symbolism and Secession, came into the possession of the museum as soon as they were made or directly after they had been first exhibited. The considerable enrichment of the Museum of Fine Arts’ collections in the years following its opening can be attributed to two donations of significant volume and outstanding value. When in 1907 the estate of Count János Pálffy was bequeathed to the museum 41 paintings by predominantly French, Belgian and German masters entered the picture gallery of foreign modern art.12 In 1912 Count Dénes Andrássy left 130 paintings and seven sculptures to this unit of the collection, the majority of the works being German landscapes and genre paintings.13 The paintings from Pálffy’s estate—and the Rodin sculptures that had been acquired earlier—were supplemented by nine modern French masterpieces purchased by Gábor Térey between 1907 and 1913.14 This laid the foundations upon which Elek Petrovics, who filled the office of directorgeneral between 1914 and 1935, was able to build.15 1914–1935 With further favourable purchases and donations Petrovics was able to raise the existing collection of high standard nineteenth-century French paintings to an international level.16 However, his purchases were aimed at the beginnings of Modernism and thus only documented the artistic trends of the last third of the nineteenth century, i.e. he purchased works by artists who were active one or two generations prior to the interwar period. With his exclusive preference 139 for foreign and domestic artists that belonged to this circle the achievements of the contemporary international art of the time were almost completely excluded from Petrovics’s ideas in regard to acquisition, which was later to cause irreparable gaps in the collection. During the period that started in 1914 and lasted for half a century—driven by orientation in taste and the directives of cultural policy—the museum discontinued its interest in the development of contemporary international art. The sporadic acquisition activities it had pursued were directly subordinated to the objectives of high politics: both the museum and the state made the vast majority of their purchases at the representative, national exhibitions organised in the Kunsthalle. In the twenty-two years that Petrovics was the director of the museum the holdings of twentieth-century art were enriched by a mere eleven paintings and ten sculptures. Among the artists whose works were purchased between 1914 and 1935 the more prominent ones include George Minne, André Lhote and Petar Dobrovic. The work of some noted artists—Ivan Meštrović, Pekka Halonen, Charles Despiau and Antoine Bourdelle—found their way into the Modern Picture Gallery’s painting and sculpture collections as donations.17 Initially Petrovics carried on the activities of the institution with the professional staff that he had inherited from his predecessor. However, he implemented some restructuring that affected the assignment of responsibilities.18 As the director-general Petrovics carried out the general art and administration management duties to a far more pronounced degree than the scope of responsibilities he had taken over from Kammerer demanded of him. As director, Térey was entrusted with the management of the Old Masters’ Gallery.19 With the exception of the Old Masters’ Gallery and the Department of Prints and Drawings, which were managed as two separate organisational units, the museum’s collections (old Hungarian art, ancient antiquities, medieval and modern sculpture as well as modern Hungarian and foreign art) came directly under the supervision of the director-general, and only the technical tasks were divided according to the units. Petrovics was assisted in his work by museum and collections administrators. The collections administration for the modern works primarily fell to Dezsô Rózsaffy, but the preparatory work on the catalogue for the Modern Picture Gallery and assisting in the work of the sculpture collection were also included among the responsibilities assigned to Andor Pigler, who was employed by the institution from 1922. 1935–1944 The museum’s holdings were reorganised in accordance with article VIII of the act of 1934 on restructuring Hungarian public collections. The nine collection units were organised into more distinct sets of works than before. In regard to the art of the most modern period the Modern Pic- 140 1 Foreign Masters of the Nineteenth–Twentieth Century Old Kunsthalle, 1939, Organised by Dénes Csánky ture Gallery, Modern Hungarian Picture Gallery and Modern Hungarian Sculpture Collection formed distinct collection units.20 The first of these was the collection of sculptures and paintings by foreign masters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which soon after came to be exhibited completely separately from the Hungarian works. Organised by Dénes Csánky, who was appointed director-general in 1935, the exhibition titled Foreign Masters of the Nineteenth–Twentieth Century opened in 1939 in the old building of the Kunsthalle on Andrássy Road (fig. 1).21 Despite the unambiguously defined operation of the collection units, as attested to by annual reports, the old and modern (Hungarian and universal) picture gallery material was directly supervised by Csánky. Assistant curator László Balás-Piri participated in the administrative work of the Modern Picture Gallery, while curators Jolán Balogh and Andor Pigler had a somewhat greater degree of freedom in organising the tasks pertaining to the sculpture collection and the Old Masters’ Gallery. During Dénes Csánky’s period as director-general (1935–1944) the development of diplomatic relations was reflected more markedly than ever by the national exhibitions that were organised with state participation and which represented the main source of acquisitions for public collections. A direct benefit of these shows was the large-scale Italian exhibition organised in 141 the Kunsthalle in 1935, at which the Hungarian state bought one work each by Carlo Carrà and Felice Casorati, and the Italian government enriched the Museum of Fine Arts with a portrait painted by Gino Severini of his wife.22 Apart from these the only addition worthy of note was Maurice Utrillo’s painting titled Street Scene, which was donated by Lénárd Miksa. (The authenticity of Lénárd’s donation, Still Life with Flowers by Maurice de Vlaminck, is questionable). During Dénes Csánky’s period a total of twenty-nine twentieth-century foreign works (15 paintings and four sculptures) were added to the museum’s holdings.23 1945–1968 The years following World War II brought about structural changes in the organisation of the museum. The system of the collections was simplified and the formally nine departments were organised into four with the work of each one directed by its own department head.24 The Modern Picture Gallery contained the international and Hungarian paintings made after 1800 and was headed by Dénes Radocsay,25 whose post was taken over in 1952 by István Genthon, who had resigned from the post of director-general in 1949 and was appointed the head of the newly organised Old Hungarian Collection.26 The modern sculpture collection formed part of the Sculpture Department, directed by Jolán Balogh, the tasks pertaining to this part of the collection being performed by Péter Meller. In the last quarter of 1953 the New Hungarian Picture Gallery was formed—with Lajos Végvári becoming its director—and the Modern Foreign Picture Gallery was also established with István Genthon as its head. In 1957, in parallel with the foundation of the Hungarian National Gallery, the material belonging to the Sculpture Department was reorganised. From this point on, in addition to the paintings, the Modern Foreign Picture Gallery (later Modern Department) managed the foreign sculptures made after 1800, with Béla Bächer placed in charge within the department. For over two decades following World War II the museum’s relations with the international art scene of the time was determined by the prevailing political factors. In all the collection was enriched by only a few works by left-wing French and Italian artists and some—by now forgotten—artists who were active in the communist bloc. In regard to quality the only important exception among them was a work purchased in 1966, titled Nudes, which was made in Budapest in 1947 by Corneille, one of the leading figures of the internationally highly prestigious Cobra Group. Genthon regarded it as crucial to utilise every opportunity to fill the gaps formed in the early years of the last century. He acquired two still lifes by Gino Severini that had earlier been displayed at the Italian exhibition in 1936. He managed to obtain one of them in 1951 from the Presidential Palace of the Republic and the other in 1953 from the Metropolitan Picture Gallery. 142 He purchased a still life by Max Slevogt and two paintings by Oskar Kokoschka from Hungarian private collections, while three plaster statues by Josef Csaky were acquired through ministerial purchase. In the period between 1945 and 1968 the museum was enlarged by 38 twentieth-century works, 27 of which were made in the post-1945 years. 1969–1977 Following István Genthon’s retirement Éva Kovács ran the department from January 1969 for a year before it was taken over by Dénes Pataky. Krisztina Passuth was employed at the Department of Prints and Drawings from 1966 and from 1970 became a research fellow at the Modern Department, then from 1975 to 1977 its head. 1969 brought a significant turning point in regard to the collection of contemporary international art: Victor Vasarely donated seven outstanding paintings, a sculpture and two drawings from his own collection comprising works by his prestigious fellow artists.27 The selected works were representative works of art of European abstract art, which at the time was not entirely recognised by Hungarian cultural policy. However, in due respect to Vasarely’s person, obstacles were not created that would have impeded the acceptance of this donation. 2 20th-century Art Ionic Hall, 1972, Organised by Krisztina Passuth 143 Krisztina Passuth used the acceptance of these works to steer cultural policy away from regarding artists of Hungarian origin living abroad and acquiring a name for themselves there as “enemies”. In 1970 she acquired 46 paintings and sculptures for the museum in connection with an exhibition organised in the Kunsthalle titled 20th-century Artists of Hungarian Origin Abroad. This group of objects was later supplemented by additional works: in the 1970s the collection of the Modern Department was enriched by three of Vasarely’s own paintings in addition to works of art by George Kepes, Nicolas Schöffer, Lucien Hervé, Étienne Beöthy, Étienne Hajdu, Amerigo Tot, Pierre Székely, Marta Pan and a whole list of successful Hungarians living abroad of varying degrees of renown, typically through donation and preferential purchase. Now that such a channel of acquisition was opened up it became possible to obtain works by artists who were not linked to Hungary in any way. From 1972 acquisitions could be made regardless of the political affiliations of artists (fig. 2) and not only on the basis of their belonging to the communist bloc or to the left-wing circles from the West. Some of these artists were from the top international echelons of the time, or associated with them, such as Marc Chagall—one of whose paintings executed in his old age was purchased by the museum from the master’s Budapest exhibition—, Umberto Mastroianni and Renato Guttuso. A series of purchases from the biennials of small sculptures at the Kunsthalle began in 1973 with two of Fritz Wotruba’s sculptures and continued with purchases of works by Uli Pohl and Erich Hauser (another exhibited work by Hauser was donated to the museum by the sculptor Tibor Vilt). In addition to works made at the time by contemporary artists it was also possible to augment the collection with one or two important works originating from earlier periods: three paintings and two sculptures by János Mattis-Teutsch, two concrete reliefs by Laszlo Peri, a small-scale composition by Alfred Forbat and two newly acquired sculptures by Josef Csaky (a further eight plaster sculptures entered the museum’s holdings from the artist’s legacy in 1978). This period was defined by acquisitions of works by “compatriots in emigration”, with any additional ones only occasionally being comparable to the works listed above in terms of their significance. In the period between 1969 and 1977 the modern collection was enlarged by 152 works by twentieth-century artists. Of these 133 were made after 1945 and the overwhelming majority were the work of artists of Hungarian origin. The inner proportions of the modern collection that was built in this period continued to determine its external assessment, despite the shift in proportion that subsequently occurred in this regard. 144 3 20th-century Art Ionic Hall, 1982, Organised by Mrs Péter Cifka 1978–2005 In 1978 artists, such as Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker, Adolf Luther and Ulrich Erben, who arrived for an exhibition organised at the end of the previous year on West German art,28 donated their works to the museum. However, the acquisitions in the first half of the 1980s was defined by three large groups of works made by Hungarian artists (fig. 3). In 1981 Victor Vasarely donated a splendid selection consisting of close to four hundred works of art produced with various techniques and encompassing his entire œuvre to the Hungarian state. This independent collection managed by the Museum of Fine Arts was afforded a permanent exhibition venue by the Vasarely Museum in Óbuda, which opened in 1987. In 1983, after the exhibition Hommage to the Motherland organised in the Kunsthalle and again devoted to Hungarian artists living abroad, the Modern Department of the Museum of Fine Arts was enriched by 55 works of art.29 In the following year the widow of the artist Zoltán Kemény donated his collection to the institution, which consisted of fifty of his early paintings and relief collages, three sculptures and 335 sketches. Notwithstanding the scarcity of funds available during the second half of the eighties the contemporary collection of the Modern Department went through a phase of significant development thanks to its fortunate circumstances. The minimal budget allocated for purchasing works 145 4 contemporary Collection Ionic Pyramid, 1996, Organised by Ferenc Tóth of art (and in most cases only allowing payment in forints) continued to deprive the Museum of Fine Arts of the opportunity to enlarge its collection through the international art-dealing network. The scarce funds available in the domestic art market limited purchases of works by prominent foreign contemporaries to drawings, this therefore could not represent a significant source of enlargement for the museum. However, the Kunsthalle, which was enjoying its heyday during these years, managed to splendidly tailor its exhibition strategy to the given conditions of the period. Using her foreign ties Katalin Néray, the director of the Kunsthalle, managed to mount one exhibition after the other of works by artists who belonged to the elite of the international art scene and who regarded their participation in a Budapest exhibition as a gesture. After making an assessment of the local situation of public collections the artists who came to Hungary were not averse to donating individual works. This was not only because they appreciated the museum’s lack of funds to make purchases but also because their works were placed in a distinguished European art collection. Thanks to the personal relations between the invited artists and the two institutions, the Museum of Fine Arts was enriched by a number of works by representatives of the international 146 art scene (Gérard Titus-Carmel, Claude Viallat, Wladislaw Hasior, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Armando, Emil Schumacher etc.) In 1988 the Internationales Künstler Gremium held its annual meeting at the Kunsthalle. The participants and artists who exhibited their work for some days (Rune Mields, Georg Jappe, Harald Falkenhagen, Otto Dressler) sold their art produced with experimental techniques to the Museum of Fine Arts at symbolic prices. Graphic designer Klaus Staeck, for example, ceded his Joseph Beuys multiples, realised as part of his publishing work, to the museum. In the following year the Kunsthalle invited young Muscovite artists to Budapest whose works produced here were then purchased for the museum’s modern collection by the 20th Century Foundation, established in 1986 by Péter Véghelyi, a paediatrician.30 The Foundation later purchased further works for the museum. Through additional personal connections the museum acquired works by Alberto Burri, Tom Phillips, Sam Gilliam, Hermann Glöckner,31 Ryszard Winiarski, George Kepes and Endre Tót. A significant part of the works by foreign artists invited to the computer graphics exhibition titled Digitart hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts in 1986 also came into the institution’s ownership.32 In the space of five years in the second half of the 1980s a total of 75 contemporary works were added to the museum’s Modern Department, with works by artists of Hungarian origin being only sporadically represented among these. The range of works was broadened by those produced with the newly emerging media (photos, videos, installations). The works by the representative— albeit not necessarily the most trendy—figures of the international art scene reflected the changes taking place in the domain of universal art. The following decade commenced with the largest scale—not inclusive of Vasarely’s own works—of contemporary art donation to the museum since its establishment.33 In 1991 Bryan Montgomery, a London businessman, donated 150 works of art to the institution, the overwhelming majority of them being British contemporary works executed with various techniques.34 The donation forms an independent collection unit managed by the Modern Department. The acquisition of a sculpture by Anthony Caro, a leading figure of British sculpture through a purchase made directly from the distributor, the London Gallery Annely Juda, could have served as the first example of exploiting the opportunities that opened up to Hungary with the change in the political system. Caro’s work selected by the museum was purchased for the institution by Postabank in 1994. Although this was not followed by further sponsorship on such a large scale, there were nevertheless opportunities during this period to acquire some additional important works. The collection was enriched through favourable purchases and donations with works by Bernard Schultze and Frank Badur of Germany, Erró of Iceland, by András Böröcz and Judit Herskó, who live in the United States, as well as with such prominent works from the Eastern 147 European region as those by Józef Robakowski of Poland, Rudolf Fila of Slovakia and the Romanian Mircea Spataru (fig. 4). From 1998 until the change in the person of the director-general in the recent past only moderate results were achieved in acquisition. Between 1998 and 2005 twenty-five works entered the collection, all of which were donations and none of them by artists highly acclaimed in the international art world. During these years public collection procurement was especially adversely affected by negative developments in the economic situation. The purchasing budget of the institution stagnated at the level of previous decades and state subsidies earmarked for acquisition of art came along with stricter stipulations than before. At the same time the approach to the region by the players on the art scene abroad changed perceptibly. While in the decades before the change in the system there had been more opportunities to rely on the goodwill of artists or their representatives to make donations or to sell works at significantly discounted prices, in the years following the change in the system Hungary was increasingly regarded as a market partner on an equal footing with western countries. To exacerbate matters, restricted in its choices by the scarcity of funds available, the museum did not bring even a minimal financial sacrifice to acquire contemporary works for its modern collection, which represented one of its six departments. In the period from 1978 to 2005 the Modern Department of the Museum of Fine Arts acquired 358 contemporary works of art.35 Thus, today the numerically considerable collection has some 520 works from the art of the latter half of the twentieth century, which is not inclusive of the material from the Vasarely Museum and the Bryan Montgomery donation. Viewed in the context of the entire century—and excluding those works that were lost or left the collection for some reason—the Modern collection now comprises of close to eight hundred paintings and sculptures. (Doubts in regard to the dating of some works gives rise to uncertainty in the numerical accuracy of this figure). The new approach adopted in recent decades to the art from the end of the nineteenth century through the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, resulted in the trends and achievements in Central European and Scandinavian art, which had previously been only recognised in comparison with the French movements, have been assigned increased importance. It can be confidently stated that thanks to previous acquisitions the outstanding array of works measuring up to international standards in the Museum of Fine Arts represents this period in a broad geographical spectrum. However, the museum’s turning away from the ongoing achievements of universal art witnessed in the next half century or so caused irreparable gaps in the collection. Works of art produced in the interwar years can be found in the museum only sporad- 148 ically. In the last third of the twentieth century greater efforts were made to open up to the international art scene but the full realisation of such efforts was thwarted by numerous objective obstacles, and sometimes limited by personal decisions.36 Nevertheless, the material acquired at the time does—despite its fragmentary and haphazard nature—have a distinct character. Given the circumstances of its resumption, the collection of contemporary works provides a diverse picture of the artistic development of Hungarian artists who were scattered around the world. Moreover, a core collection of quality works of art (though perhaps not the works by the most popular stars of the art world) has been built which represents the characteristic forms of expression and the most diverse range of technical innovations of recent decades. Ferenc Tóth is art historian at the Department of Art after 1800, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. Notes 1 I will not be dealing with this group of works at the moment as it might be explored in a separate study. For a summary see Judit Geskó, “Modern Works of Art in the Collections of the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest”, Grapheion, European Review of Modern Prints, Book and Paper Art 15–16, nos. 3–4 (2000), 4–8. 2 By 1896 Pulszky had practically entirely exhausted the purchasing budget of 700,000 forints that was allocated for old paintings in order to develop the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts that was to be built. However, the budget earmarked for modern works remained untouched. Ferenc Tóth, “Pulszky Károly tragédiája új dokumentumok tükrében”, Mûvészettörténeti Értesítô [Bulletin of History of Arts] 56, no. 2 (2007), 233–58. 3 The modern collection of the Museum of Fine Arts was assembled from the nineteenth-century material of the Hungarian National Gallery, which was transferred to the museum, and the works purchased for the institution between 1896 and 1906. Ferenc Tóth, A Szépmûvészeti Múzeum modern külföldi gyûjteményének létrehozói, PhD diss., Humanities Faculty of ELTE, Budapest 2006. http://doktori.btk. elte.hu/art/tothferenc/diss.pdf. 4 Ernô Kammerer took over the management of the National Gallery on a government commission in 1896, but was only appointed to the position of director in 1901. Gábor Térey was invited back from Germany in 1896 and from 1900 he became chief curator, and then from 1904 director of the department. Simon Meller joined the National Gallery in 1901 and from 1904 was assistant curator for the prints collection, and from 1910 its head. From 1902 József Wollanka was assistant curator for the sculpture collection. From 1984 Sándor Nyári was library assistant curator and from 1899 library curator. 149 5 For Gábor Térey’s career and his activities in relation to the Old Masters’ Gallery see Orsolya Radványi, Térey Gábor—Egy konzervatív újító a Szépmûvészeti Múzeumban. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 2006. 6 The first independent unit was the Department of Drawings and Prints, for which Simon Meller was appointed the head of department from 1910. The Historical Picture Gallery and the Far Eastern collection were only housed by the institution on a temporary basis. 7 “A mûvészet a költségvetésben”, Mûcsarnok, 12 November 1899, 416. 8 For the annual breakdown of the circumstances of the development of acquisitions and their expansion see Tóth 2006. 9 Of the 393 modern foreign works of art that were attributable to the acquisitions made between 1896 and 1913 136 pieces—of which 42 were made in the twentieth century—disappeared in the years that followed or left the collection for various reasons. 10 Upon Gábor Térey’s personal intercession five sculptures came into the collection in 1900 and 1901 directly from the artist’s studio. Mária Illyés, Œuvres françaises du XIXe siècle, The Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts 4, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 2001, 118–23, 127–33. 11 Max Klinger’s plaster portrait of Ferenc Liszt was destoyed in World War II. 12 The museum took over the estate in 1912. Included among the material were three landscapes by Daubigny, two by Troyon and one by Couture, as well as a representative painting by Lenbach, titled the Triumphal Arch of Titus (inv. no. 245. B.) 13 Among the most important modern foreign acquisitions of the Andrássy estate were Böcklin’s Spring Evening (inv. no. 294. B), Uhde’s painting titled The Entombment (inv.no 291. B), as well as four paintings by Albert von Keller. 14 Works that entered the collection of modern foreign paintings between 1907 to 1903 include Daubigny’s Landscape Near Villerville (inv. no. 203. B), Boudin’s Portrieux (inv. no. 202. B), Millet’s Puy-de-D√me (inv. no. 269. B), Monet’s Blossoming Plum Trees (inv. no. 266. B), Gaugin’s Winter Landscape (inv. no. 204. B), and The Black Pigs (inv. no. 355. B), Pissarro’s The Pont-Neuf (inv. no. 205. B), and ToulouseLautrec’s Women in the Dining Room (inv. no. 366. B.). Also included was a landscape by Sisley titled Moret-sur-Loing, which the museum gave as an exchange in 1916 to offset part of the purchase price of Manet’s Lady with a Fan (inv. no. 368. B). 15 For the public collection purchases of Impressionist works see Judit Geskó and Péter Molnos, “Histoire des collections d’œuvres impressionistes françaises en Hongrie”, in Monet et ses amis, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 2003. 16 During the period Petrovics was director thirteen modern French paintings of outstanding value came into the collection dating from the last third of the nineteenth century. For Petrovics see Péter Mol- 150 nos, “Elek Petrovics (1873–1945). ‘Emberek és nem frakkok’. A magyar mûvészettörténet-írás nagy alakjai”, vol. I, Enigma no. 47 (2006), 218–42. 17 In addition to the above works, between 1914 and 1935 the museum’s holdings were enriched with paintings and sculptures produced in the first third of the century by the following artists: Hugo Lederer, Christa Winsloe (the wife of Lajos Hatvany), Paul Benedict, Jakob Dietz, Friedrich Bosch, Oswald Brückner and Hans Müller of Germany; Alfons Walde of Austria; Eugeen van Mieghem and Victor Gilsoul of Belgium; Julia Mendlik-Mijnsen of the Netherlands; Menzi Clement Crncic of Croatia; Wladislaw Jarocki of Poland, and M. van Wyck of whom no biographical data are known. 18 See annual reports, Central Archives of the Museum of Fine Arts. 19 Following Simon Meller’s retirement Edit Hoffmann took over the management of the Department of Prints and Drawings from 1922. Upon Térey’s departure he was replaced by Jolán Balogh from 1926, who took over the management of the sculpture collection some years later. 20 A Szépmûvészeti Múzeum 1935–36-ban, 31-page typescript with no inventory number, Central Archives of the Museum of Fine Arts, 14–15. 21 Dénes Csánky, A XIX. és XX. század külföldi mesterei, catalogue, Budapest 1939. Prior to this, from 1928, the New Hungarian Picture Gallery, i.e. Hungarian works after the Millennium, were housed here under the direction of Elek Petrovics. 22 Modern Italian Art Exhibition, Kunsthalle, Budapest, January–March, 1936. 23 In addition to the aforementioned, the other twentieth-century acquisitions were by: Mario Tozzi and Francesco Messina of Italy; Charles Lebon of Belgium; Rafal Malczewski, Pavel Dadlez and Waclaw Borowski of Poland; Emil Johanson Thor, Carl Gunne and Anshelm Leonard Schultzberg of Sweden; Gottfried Eickhoff and Kay Nielsen of Denmark; Erasts Sveic of Latvia; and Elik Haamer and Martin Saks of Estonia. 24 “Vallásminiszterhez felterjesztés az osztályvezetôk hivatali állásukban való megerôsítés és altisztek kinevezése tban”, 21 February 1946, Central Archives of the Museum of Fine Arts, 27/ 1946. In his presentation director István Genthon recommended that Andor Pigler be made head of the Old Masters’ Gallery, Jolán Balogh head of the Department of Prints and Drawings, and Zoltán Oroszlán head of the Sculpture Department. Not soon after Jolán Balogh was appointed head of the Sculpture Department. 25 János Végh, “Dénes Radocsay (1918–1974). ‘Emberek, és nem frakkok’. A magyar mûvészettörténetírás nagy alakjai”, vol. III, Enigma 49, 2007, 579–88. 26 Julianna P. Szûcs, “István Genthon (1903–1969). ‘Emberek, és nem frakkok’. A magyar mûvészettörténet-írás nagy alakjai”, vol. III, Enigma no. 49 (2007), 487–504. 151 27 Paintings by Josef Albers, Olle Baertling, Jean Dewasne, Jean-Jacques Deyrolle, Le Corbusier, Alberto Magnelli and Richard Mortensen, a sculpture by Robert Jacobsen and drawings by Jean Arp and Sonia Delaunay. 28 Mûvészeti törekvések az NSZK-ban, 1945 után. Exhibition of the Folkwangmuseum Essen, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 19 November–31 December 1977. 29 Among others, works by Dezsô Orbán, Gyula Marosán, Judit Reigl, Tibor Gáyor, János Megyik and Ervin Pátkai produced at the time. Tisztelet a szülôföldnek. Külföldön élô magyar származású mûvészek II. kiállítása, Kunsthalle, Budapest, 1982, 17 December 1982–30 January 1983. 30 Works by Juri Albert, Sergei and Vladimir Mironenko, as well as Constantine Zvezdotsotov entered the collection, which had been made for the exhibition Art for Art in the Kunsthalle. 31 Glöckner’s painting entered the museum’s collection from the Münzkabinet in Dresden in exchange for Hungarian works on Judit Geskó’s intercession. 32 Digital works by Getulio Alviani, Horst Bartnig, Beck & Jung, Jürgen Lit Fischer, Herbert W. Franke, Gerard F. Kammerer-Luka, Esa Laurema, Cecile Massart, Markku Metsämäki, Manfred Mohr, Vera Molnar, Torsten Ridell, Lillian F. Schwartz, Shizuko Yoshikawa and Edward Zajec are preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings. Digitart. Számítógép-mûvészeti kiállítás, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 28 November – 28 December 1986. 33 At the time that the Pálffy estate (1907), the Andrássy estate (1912) and the Majovszky collection (1935) entered the museum’s holdings the valuable core of the collections had been overwhelmingly regarded as historical relics of the recent past of some generations back. 34 Among others works by Karel Appel, Derek Boshier, Michael Craig-Martin, Rita Donagh, Amanda Faulkner, Alan Green, Maggi Hambling, Stanley William Hayter, John Hoyland, Bill Jacklin, Derek Jarman, Ellsworth Kelly, Ian McKeever, Kenneth Martin, John Maybury, Kenneth Noland, Frank Stella, Ian Stephenson, Joe Tilson, John Walker, and Ainslie Yule. Ferenc Tóth, The Bryan Montgomery Collection, The Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts 3, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 1999. 35 During these close to three decades the departments curators in various periods were: Brigitta Cifka, Judit Geskó, Mária Illyés, Katalin Papp, Ferenc Tóth and Péter Ujvári. 36 A detailed analysis of these circumstances should be the subject of a separate study. 152