Between 1965 and 1975, in the political interregnum between the Stalinist party secretary Georghiu-Dej's death and the stabilization of Ceausescu's power, there was a brief but fertile cultural upswing in keeping with the international social and cultural movements, contributing irrevocably to today's artistic diversity.
In the 45-year-long history of communist rule in Romania, this was the only period in which the ambitions of Hungarian artists in Romania seeking an identity could relatively freely unfold.
Believing in the specificity of Transylvanian art, cherishing the interwar tradition of transylvanism, they sought to render emblematically the artistic motifs and forms used in the past of Transylvanian art and literature deemed typical of the region. At the same time, as part of their self-identifying efforts, many of them adapted their efforts to ideals in international and contemporary art.
They often took their examples from art in Hungary or from the Transylvanian art of a previous age - the elderly often reviving the formal experiments of their own youth.
The dual course of identity quest most profoundly affected the art of those who began their careers in this period: up-to-date stylistic efforts tied them to Europe and the choice of themes illumined from a peculiar Hungarian vantage point to Transylvanian existence.
As a result of the identity search bringing to the surface the conflict of modernism and particularism but turning the revival irreversible, a peculiar stylistic blend emerged in the second half of the '60s and early '70s, mixing the traits of the post-Nagybánya style and realism still persisting at the art academies, the classical avantgarde trends - primarily expressionism, constructivism and surrealism - as well as contemporary, mainly abstract endeavours. Contrarily to socialist realism, this style, shifting towards stylization and decorativeness in the first place, with an international flavour in the East European sense, was suitable to visualize creative intentions and creative personalities, not only formal specificities, in a singular manner.
The period witnessed the unfolding of lifeworks such as those of József Balla, István Barabás, Sándor Benczédi, András Bodri, Antal Andor Fülöp, Béla Gy. Szabó, János Dés Incze, Gábor Miklóssy, Sándor Mohy, Albert Nagy, Imre Nagy, Olivér Pittner and Jeno Szervátiusz.
That was the period when artists such as László Albert, Imre Baász, Imre Balázs, István Bertalan, Ferenc Deák, László Feszt, András Gaál, Péter Jecza, Miklós Jakobovits, Jeno Korondi, András Kós, Béla Kulcsár, Endre Kusztos, Árpád Márton, Pál Nagy, László Paulovits, Lajos Páll, Sándor Plugor, Sándor Puskás, Viktor Román, Endre Simon, Ferenc Sükösd, András Szécsi as well as Tibor Szervátiusz, Anna Tamás, Vid Tirnovan and Károly Wilhelm acquired their role in the Hungarian art of Romania.