Born a 100 years ago: Jenő Medveczky

Jenő Medveczky was one of the most outstanding masters of 20th century Hungarian painting and print-making. Trained in Budapest, Rome and Paris, he shaped the classic traditions to his singular profile. He was attracted to the Greco-Latin heritage just as much as to 20th century French painting. He did not hide his affinities with the his great ancestors in Hungarian painting, and enjoyed the friendship of some elder masters. He was a painter of monumental works, as his surviving frescos and murals reveal. His strictly constructed paintings of pure colours and graphic works of firm linear quality were presented to the spectator as passionate confessions. His art is characterized by elegance, subtle intellectual profundity, lyrical playfulness, motion, musicality - whether the theme is a tragic fate or the trifles of everyday life. His excellent portraits radiate ideals.
The work of Jenő Medveczky, a member of the School of Rome, is still being analyzed. His collected paintings have never been shown in Budapest. The retrospective showing on the 100th anniversary of the painter's birth presents works also from foreign and Hungarian private collections.
As a representative of 20th century Hungarian art, he lived together with the legacy bequeathed by Mediterranian culture to Hungarian art. He proclaimed his great predecessors as his masters, since he was aware that his genius and talent was not dependent on them so much as to impair his autonomy and authenticity. He had respect for his contemporaries and the great minds of his age, who ennobled his art. He became their equal on account of his intellectual stance and artistic mastery.
He would be a 100 years old this year.
On this occasion, his works rarely or never shown to the public, being in private collections at home or abroad, are put on display.
The catalogue is written by Zsuzsa Jobbágy from the angle of an art historian today.