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MOLNÁR C., Pál
MOLNÁR C., Pál
painter, graphic artist
(28 April, 1894, Battonya-Tompapuszta – 11 July, 1981, Budapest) He did not join the avant-garde, nor did he see the Arcadian propensities of the works of his co-evals Vilmos Aba-Novák and István Szõnyi as the route to follow. Pál C. Molnár chose a third way, finding the source of both his thematic world and his style as a painter in the past. This was certainly due in part to the fact that although from 1915 he attended teacher-training classes in drawing at the Academy of Fine Art - his skill as a draughtsman having shown itself early - he actually mastered his craft abroad, and was largely self-taught to a very high professional standard, thanks to painting copies of works in the Louvre to order. When he returned to Hungary in 1922 after an absence of four years, his reintegration under local conditions was not without its pitfalls, his innate love of the quattrocento and ecclesiastical art notwithstanding. For in the mid-twenties Pál C. Molnár used archaisms in the surreal idiom that flourished at the time. His secular, often frivolous reinterpretation of scenes from the Bible did not achieve much recognition among official state and church authorities; it was much more in middle-class circles that he quickly found an audience. In the second half of the twenties he supported himself with witty and frivolous newspaper cartoons on an almost daily basis, but from the thirties onwards professional respect for both his expertise and his talent led to a string of prizes (Monza, Warsaw, Milan, Padua, Rome) and commissions (a winged altar in the church at Városmajor, another in Battony, panel pictures in the Golf Hotel, a fresco in St Ann's Church, an altar fresco in the Farkasrét Cemetery chapel, and so on). When Tibor Gerevich, professor of art history and politician in the arts field decided that to counterbalance left-wing modernism he would overhaul modern state art via hand-picked members of the new generation, and established the Hungarian Institute, the Accademia, in Rome to this end, it was understandable if Pál C. Molnár was one of the first to win a three-year scholarship there in 1928. He thus became the embodiment of the intellectual movement known later as the School of Rome, and continued his activity in church art after the war (his most important work in this art-form was the winged altar in the parish church of the Inner City in Pest, 1948), as well as producing many secular panel paintings (portraits, scenes with horses, landscapes etc.), in a style awash with increasingly bizarre and surreal features. (Gábor Ö. Pogány Pál C. Molnár. Budapest 1988, with excerpts in French, German and English.)
[József Vadas: Hungarian Masterpieces (Vadas József : A magyar festészet remekei), translator: Godfrey Offord, Corvina Publishers, 2004.] One-Man Shows:
1919-1920 • Lausanne • Geneva
1923 • Belvedere, Budapest
1934 • Ernst Museum, Budapest
1937 • Fränkel Salon, Budapest
1955, 1959, 1965, 1970, 1977 • Csók Gallery, Budapest
1958 • Galerie Gurlitt, Berlin • Stuttgart • Munich
1969 • Vaszary Hall, Kaposvár (HU)
1971 • Szőnyi Hall, Miskolc (HU)
1974 • Ernst Museum, Budapest • Vaszary Hall, Kaposvár (HU)
1975 • Ernst Museum, Budapest • Galerie Peithner-Lichtenfeld, Vienna
1976 • Picture Gallery, Pécs (HU) • Ferenc Móra Museum, Szeged (HU)
1979 • Battonya • Dürer Hall, Gyula (HU) (cat.)
1980 • School Gallery, Csepel (HU)
1982 • Gallery of Hatvan, Hatvan (HU) • Bartók 32 Gallery, Budapest
1984 • Gallery of Szentes, Szentes (HU) • Memorial House of Battonya (HU) • Studio-Museum (permanent exhibition in his studio, Ménesi Street 65.)
1986 • Benedictine Abbey of Tihany, Tihany (HU)
1988 • Zalaegerszeg (HU) • Fészek Art Club, Budapest
1990 • Landesmuseum am Joanneum, Graz
1991 • Szombathely (HU) • Belvedere, Vienna
1993 • Hotel Gellért, Budapest
1993-1994 • Ferenc Móra Museum, Szeged (HU)
1994 • Benedictine Abbey of Tihany, Tihany (HU).
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1928-1942 • XVI., XVII., XVIII., XX., XXI., XXII., XXIII. Biennial of Venice, Venice
from 1945 successively with the Buda Artists’ Society
1954 • Ernst Museum, Budapest Works in Public Places:
Saint Emeric and Annuntiatio (altar and mural painting, 1933, Church of Városmajor, Budapest)
Trinity [altar, 1935, Parish Church, Battonya (HU)]
Three panno for a restaurant (1938-1939, Hotel Panoráma, Budapest)
Mural Paintings (1938-1939, Church of Saint Anne, Batthyány Square, Budapest)
Three winged altar and wood sculpture of Saint Emeric (1939-1943, Parish Church of Saint Ladislaus, Béke Square, Budapest)
Golgotha (fresco, 1941, Budapest, Cemetery Chapel of Farkasrét, perished)
Two Altar Paintings (1941, Parish Church of Lehel Square, Budapest) (in unknown place)
Two Altar Paintings [1942-1943, Convent of Saint Ursule Nuns, Chapel, Győr (HU)]
Consecration of Malta Knights (1942-1943, Mathias Church, Budapest)
Choir parapet [1947 (HU), Calvary Chapel, Kőszeg]
Winged Altar (1948-1951, Downtown Parish Curch, Budapest)
Glass window (1948, Central Seminary of Budapest)
Death of Saint Joseph [fresco, 1949, Cathedral of Vác (HU)]
Stigmas of Saint Francis (altar painting, 1949-1950, Church of Saint John Capistran, Budapest)
Four happy death (altar painting, 1949, Ják Chapel, City park, Budapest)
Saint Rita (altar, 1952, Church of Kun Street, Budapest)
Saint Anne [altar, 1952, Parish Church, Balatonlelle (HU)]
Queen of Rosary [altar painting, 1952, Ózd-Bolyok (HU)]
Altar Painting [1952, Parish Church, Biatorbágy (HU)]
Saint Philomena [altar painting, 1952, Parish Church, Battonya (HU)]
Saint Paul the Hermit (altar, 1953, Church of Holly Spirit, Budapest)
Saint Elisabeth of the Árpád House, Nativity, Vir Dolorum [altar paintings, 1955-1956, Parish Church of Saint Elisabeth, Szombathely (HU)]
Mater Dolorosa [altar, 1962-1963, Parish Church of Szentkirály, Szombathely (HU)]
Saint Anne teach Mary, Saint Gerard [altar paintings, 1966, Parish Church, Mezőhegyes (HU)]
600 Years Centenary of the Pécs University’s Foundation [mural painting, 1969, Janus Pannonius Univerity, Pécs (HU)]
Saint John Bosco [altar painting, 1969, Szombathely (HU)]. Works in Public Collections:
G. d'Arte Moderna, Rome
Janus Pannonius Museum, Modern Picture Gallery, Pécs (HU)
Christian Museum, Esztergom (HU)
Laing Art Gallery, Edinburgh
M. della Biennálé, Venice
MOMA, New York
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Neue Pinakothek, Munich. Publications:
A monumentális festészet (freskó, mozaik, üvegfestészet) és a fametszet. In.: A képzőművészet iskolája. Budapest, 1941, (vol. 1957 edited by ~ )
~ vallomásai életéről, 1994. Bibliography:
Rabinovszky, M.: ~ illusztrációi, Magyar Grafika, 1928
Rosner, K.: A magyar fametszet, Erdélyi Helikon, 1930
Genthon, I.: ~, Napkelet, 1934
Magyar, V.: ~, Revue de Hongrie, 1934
Ungarische Kunst: Ausstellung in der Gurlitt Galerie, Berliner Tageblatt, 1935. január 8.
Ujváry, L.: ~ 30 eredeti fametszete Cyrano de Bergerachoz, Diárium, 1935
Genthon, I.: Az új magyar képzőművészet története, Budapest, 1935
Kampis, A.: ~ művészete, Magyar Művészet, 1936
Kopp, J.: ~, Budapest, 1938
Pipics, Z.: 100 magyar festő, Budapest, 1948
Dutka, M.: Hat festő az Ernst Múzeumban, Magyar Nemzet, 1954. április 20.
Molnár, Gy.: "Legkedvesebb tájaim", Képes Újság, 1956/10.
Gyöngyösi, N.: Három érdekes kiállítás, Élet és Irodalom, 1959. május 8.
Czeizing, L.-D. Fehér, Zs.: Művészek, Budapest, 1963
Ritly, V.: ~ új képei a Csók Galériában, Magyar Nemzet, 1965. április 27.
Fóthy, J.: Utóhang ~ kiállításához, Művészet, 1965/10.
Németh, L.: Modern magyar művészet, Budapest, 1966
Jobbágy, K.: Pegazus lázadása, Művészet, 1967/5.
Fóthy, J.: Egy festő és három kritika, Művészet, 1971/3.
Koczogh, Á.: ~, Művészet, 1974/6.
Rózsa, Gy.: A rómaiak 1945 után, Művészet, 1977/12.
P. Szücs, J.: Az idézőjel csapdája, Művészet, 1977/12.
Szíj, R.: ~ (kat., bev. tan., Battonya-Gyula, 1979)
Tóth, S.: Piros téglás gótika, Új Ember, 1979. július 22.
Dr. Fábián, J. : ~ emlékezete, Katolikus Szó, 1981. augusztus 23.
P. Szücs, J.: ~ újságrajzai, 1922-1929 (kat., bev. tan., Vigadó Galéria, 1983)
Szíj, R.: ~ egyházművészetéről, Vigilia, 1984/11.
P. Szücs, J.: A Római Iskola, Budapest, 1987
Pogány Ö., G.: ~, Budapest, 1988
A boldog művész képeskönyve. ~, 1894-1981 (szerk.: Csillag Pálné, É.), Budapest, 1997.
painter, graphic artist
(28 April, 1894, Battonya-Tompapuszta – 11 July, 1981, Budapest) He did not join the avant-garde, nor did he see the Arcadian propensities of the works of his co-evals Vilmos Aba-Novák and István Szõnyi as the route to follow. Pál C. Molnár chose a third way, finding the source of both his thematic world and his style as a painter in the past. This was certainly due in part to the fact that although from 1915 he attended teacher-training classes in drawing at the Academy of Fine Art - his skill as a draughtsman having shown itself early - he actually mastered his craft abroad, and was largely self-taught to a very high professional standard, thanks to painting copies of works in the Louvre to order. When he returned to Hungary in 1922 after an absence of four years, his reintegration under local conditions was not without its pitfalls, his innate love of the quattrocento and ecclesiastical art notwithstanding. For in the mid-twenties Pál C. Molnár used archaisms in the surreal idiom that flourished at the time. His secular, often frivolous reinterpretation of scenes from the Bible did not achieve much recognition among official state and church authorities; it was much more in middle-class circles that he quickly found an audience. In the second half of the twenties he supported himself with witty and frivolous newspaper cartoons on an almost daily basis, but from the thirties onwards professional respect for both his expertise and his talent led to a string of prizes (Monza, Warsaw, Milan, Padua, Rome) and commissions (a winged altar in the church at Városmajor, another in Battony, panel pictures in the Golf Hotel, a fresco in St Ann's Church, an altar fresco in the Farkasrét Cemetery chapel, and so on). When Tibor Gerevich, professor of art history and politician in the arts field decided that to counterbalance left-wing modernism he would overhaul modern state art via hand-picked members of the new generation, and established the Hungarian Institute, the Accademia, in Rome to this end, it was understandable if Pál C. Molnár was one of the first to win a three-year scholarship there in 1928. He thus became the embodiment of the intellectual movement known later as the School of Rome, and continued his activity in church art after the war (his most important work in this art-form was the winged altar in the parish church of the Inner City in Pest, 1948), as well as producing many secular panel paintings (portraits, scenes with horses, landscapes etc.), in a style awash with increasingly bizarre and surreal features. (Gábor Ö. Pogány Pál C. Molnár. Budapest 1988, with excerpts in French, German and English.)
[József Vadas: Hungarian Masterpieces (Vadas József : A magyar festészet remekei), translator: Godfrey Offord, Corvina Publishers, 2004.] One-Man Shows:
1919-1920 • Lausanne • Geneva
1923 • Belvedere, Budapest
1934 • Ernst Museum, Budapest
1937 • Fränkel Salon, Budapest
1955, 1959, 1965, 1970, 1977 • Csók Gallery, Budapest
1958 • Galerie Gurlitt, Berlin • Stuttgart • Munich
1969 • Vaszary Hall, Kaposvár (HU)
1971 • Szőnyi Hall, Miskolc (HU)
1974 • Ernst Museum, Budapest • Vaszary Hall, Kaposvár (HU)
1975 • Ernst Museum, Budapest • Galerie Peithner-Lichtenfeld, Vienna
1976 • Picture Gallery, Pécs (HU) • Ferenc Móra Museum, Szeged (HU)
1979 • Battonya • Dürer Hall, Gyula (HU) (cat.)
1980 • School Gallery, Csepel (HU)
1982 • Gallery of Hatvan, Hatvan (HU) • Bartók 32 Gallery, Budapest
1984 • Gallery of Szentes, Szentes (HU) • Memorial House of Battonya (HU) • Studio-Museum (permanent exhibition in his studio, Ménesi Street 65.)
1986 • Benedictine Abbey of Tihany, Tihany (HU)
1988 • Zalaegerszeg (HU) • Fészek Art Club, Budapest
1990 • Landesmuseum am Joanneum, Graz
1991 • Szombathely (HU) • Belvedere, Vienna
1993 • Hotel Gellért, Budapest
1993-1994 • Ferenc Móra Museum, Szeged (HU)
1994 • Benedictine Abbey of Tihany, Tihany (HU).
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1928-1942 • XVI., XVII., XVIII., XX., XXI., XXII., XXIII. Biennial of Venice, Venice
from 1945 successively with the Buda Artists’ Society
1954 • Ernst Museum, Budapest Works in Public Places:
Saint Emeric and Annuntiatio (altar and mural painting, 1933, Church of Városmajor, Budapest)
Trinity [altar, 1935, Parish Church, Battonya (HU)]
Three panno for a restaurant (1938-1939, Hotel Panoráma, Budapest)
Mural Paintings (1938-1939, Church of Saint Anne, Batthyány Square, Budapest)
Three winged altar and wood sculpture of Saint Emeric (1939-1943, Parish Church of Saint Ladislaus, Béke Square, Budapest)
Golgotha (fresco, 1941, Budapest, Cemetery Chapel of Farkasrét, perished)
Two Altar Paintings (1941, Parish Church of Lehel Square, Budapest) (in unknown place)
Two Altar Paintings [1942-1943, Convent of Saint Ursule Nuns, Chapel, Győr (HU)]
Consecration of Malta Knights (1942-1943, Mathias Church, Budapest)
Choir parapet [1947 (HU), Calvary Chapel, Kőszeg]
Winged Altar (1948-1951, Downtown Parish Curch, Budapest)
Glass window (1948, Central Seminary of Budapest)
Death of Saint Joseph [fresco, 1949, Cathedral of Vác (HU)]
Stigmas of Saint Francis (altar painting, 1949-1950, Church of Saint John Capistran, Budapest)
Four happy death (altar painting, 1949, Ják Chapel, City park, Budapest)
Saint Rita (altar, 1952, Church of Kun Street, Budapest)
Saint Anne [altar, 1952, Parish Church, Balatonlelle (HU)]
Queen of Rosary [altar painting, 1952, Ózd-Bolyok (HU)]
Altar Painting [1952, Parish Church, Biatorbágy (HU)]
Saint Philomena [altar painting, 1952, Parish Church, Battonya (HU)]
Saint Paul the Hermit (altar, 1953, Church of Holly Spirit, Budapest)
Saint Elisabeth of the Árpád House, Nativity, Vir Dolorum [altar paintings, 1955-1956, Parish Church of Saint Elisabeth, Szombathely (HU)]
Mater Dolorosa [altar, 1962-1963, Parish Church of Szentkirály, Szombathely (HU)]
Saint Anne teach Mary, Saint Gerard [altar paintings, 1966, Parish Church, Mezőhegyes (HU)]
600 Years Centenary of the Pécs University’s Foundation [mural painting, 1969, Janus Pannonius Univerity, Pécs (HU)]
Saint John Bosco [altar painting, 1969, Szombathely (HU)]. Works in Public Collections:
G. d'Arte Moderna, Rome
Janus Pannonius Museum, Modern Picture Gallery, Pécs (HU)
Christian Museum, Esztergom (HU)
Laing Art Gallery, Edinburgh
M. della Biennálé, Venice
MOMA, New York
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Neue Pinakothek, Munich. Publications:
A monumentális festészet (freskó, mozaik, üvegfestészet) és a fametszet. In.: A képzőművészet iskolája. Budapest, 1941, (vol. 1957 edited by ~ )
~ vallomásai életéről, 1994. Bibliography:
Rabinovszky, M.: ~ illusztrációi, Magyar Grafika, 1928
Rosner, K.: A magyar fametszet, Erdélyi Helikon, 1930
Genthon, I.: ~, Napkelet, 1934
Magyar, V.: ~, Revue de Hongrie, 1934
Ungarische Kunst: Ausstellung in der Gurlitt Galerie, Berliner Tageblatt, 1935. január 8.
Ujváry, L.: ~ 30 eredeti fametszete Cyrano de Bergerachoz, Diárium, 1935
Genthon, I.: Az új magyar képzőművészet története, Budapest, 1935
Kampis, A.: ~ művészete, Magyar Művészet, 1936
Kopp, J.: ~, Budapest, 1938
Pipics, Z.: 100 magyar festő, Budapest, 1948
Dutka, M.: Hat festő az Ernst Múzeumban, Magyar Nemzet, 1954. április 20.
Molnár, Gy.: "Legkedvesebb tájaim", Képes Újság, 1956/10.
Gyöngyösi, N.: Három érdekes kiállítás, Élet és Irodalom, 1959. május 8.
Czeizing, L.-D. Fehér, Zs.: Művészek, Budapest, 1963
Ritly, V.: ~ új képei a Csók Galériában, Magyar Nemzet, 1965. április 27.
Fóthy, J.: Utóhang ~ kiállításához, Művészet, 1965/10.
Németh, L.: Modern magyar művészet, Budapest, 1966
Jobbágy, K.: Pegazus lázadása, Művészet, 1967/5.
Fóthy, J.: Egy festő és három kritika, Művészet, 1971/3.
Koczogh, Á.: ~, Művészet, 1974/6.
Rózsa, Gy.: A rómaiak 1945 után, Művészet, 1977/12.
P. Szücs, J.: Az idézőjel csapdája, Művészet, 1977/12.
Szíj, R.: ~ (kat., bev. tan., Battonya-Gyula, 1979)
Tóth, S.: Piros téglás gótika, Új Ember, 1979. július 22.
Dr. Fábián, J. : ~ emlékezete, Katolikus Szó, 1981. augusztus 23.
P. Szücs, J.: ~ újságrajzai, 1922-1929 (kat., bev. tan., Vigadó Galéria, 1983)
Szíj, R.: ~ egyházművészetéről, Vigilia, 1984/11.
P. Szücs, J.: A Római Iskola, Budapest, 1987
Pogány Ö., G.: ~, Budapest, 1988
A boldog művész képeskönyve. ~, 1894-1981 (szerk.: Csillag Pálné, É.), Budapest, 1997.
