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SZENES, Árpád
SZENES, Árpád
painter, graphic artist
(6 May, 1897, Budapest – 16 Jan. 1985, Paris)
Árpád Szenes, during the years he spent as a solider in the First World War, became acquainted with Birman Dezső Bokros, who directed his attention towards the modern arts. Following the war he enrolled in József Rippl-Rónai’s open-school, where he was taught by both Béla Iványi-Grünwald and Károly Kernstok. In the year of 1919, he worked together with Gyula Derkovics, János Kmetty and Emil Novotny, among others, at the colony of artists located in Kecskemét. In order to make a living he worked in the fields during the day, and painted in the evening. Due to a serious illness he acquired during the wearisome labor, he was forced to move back to Budapest, where he moved into a premise in Városmajor Street. Together with István Beöthy, who he became friends with at the time, he studied Buddhism and Oriental Arts. Even though he entered a competition, announced in 1922, with abstract paintings, other works prepared during the course of the same period, such as Két Nővér /Two sisters/ (1922) or Harkányi ablak /Window in Harkány/ (1922-23), reflect the traditions of Hungarian painting at the turn of the century. Even his Önarckép /Self-portrait/, painted in 1930, stood closer in style to that of Berényi and Sőnyi, then to his French contemporaries. In 1924 he traveled to Germany, where he became acquainted with Kandinszkij’s and Klee’s works, later in Italy it was Giotto’s and Pierro della Francesca’s works which made a deep impression on him. Following his arrival to Paris in 1925, he lived in great poverty, making a living of caricatures he produced of visitors of night bars and the cafés within the Montmartre Abbey. He studied simultaneously however, at the Grand Chaumiére Academy, where, in 1929, he became acquainted with Maria Elena Vieira da Silva. The two married in 1930, and within the course of the same year visited the colony of artists located in Nagybánya, Hungary. His marriage meant the end of his haphazard lifestyle, and the art of Vieira da Silva came to its true fruition under his guidance. He often participated in the left-wing gatherings held by the Amis du Monde group together with Étienne Hajdu, Estéve, and Pignon in 1930. In 1931, through his wife, he became acquainted with the Atelier 17 group, lead by William Hayter, which was one of the main influences, which lead to the majority of his works to being produced in the spirit of surrealism (A pár /The pair/ (1933); Gyerek Papírsárkánnyal /Boy with a paper kite/ (1936); Körhinta /Merry-go-round/, (1936)). In relation to one of his most significant works of the period A tehén és az oroszlán /The cow and the lion/ (1934-35) an analyst of his finds two possible interpretations. One possible analysis is that the sight of the two animals seems to suggest the triumph of the strong over the weak, however according to another examination the predator and the prey are simple peacefully embracing one another. His works dating from the second half of the 1930’s convey a much more unanimously pessimistic disposition. Paintings of the period such as Fekete Harsona /Black Trumpet/ (1937) and Utolsó Harc /The last battle/ (1938), with their deep toned colors and quite expressive titles, suggest the pessimistic artist’s vision of the approaching war. In 1939, the couple left Paris, leaving behind their studio located on the St. Jacques Boulevard and the works it contained, to their patron and gallery director, Jeanne Bucher. Following several months spent in Lisbon they moved on to Brazil, in 1940. They lived in Rio de Janeiro for a time, and then settled down in Santa Teresa. Szenes during their years spent in Brazil painted primarily portraits and works of naturalistic style (e.g. Coleçăo Cantos de Mundo, Leitura, 1944) and prepared book illustrations. Under the name of Sylvestre, he founded an art school, which within a short while became the fashionable meeting-place of a number of painters, sculptures, musicians, writers and poets of the time. He began working on his most significant series entitled Bankett, following his return to Paris, in 1947. These works consist of paintings composed of geometric and organic forms, repetitive motifs, and are prepared with a wide range of techniques (e.g. water-color, gouache, oil, pastel, and chalk). In 1949 the French government purchased one of his paintings entitled L'atelier, 1948, which during the upcoming years was followed by a number of further governmental purchases. From the 1950’s, his mode of expression changed dramatically. Within his landscape paintings, which were inspired primarily by nature, however were capable of breaking with reality, the relation between the vertical and horizontal gained great significance. His longitudinal paintings direct the viewer’s glance into the distance along vertical lines, while his landscape-oriented paintings do so along horizontal lines. His color scale becomes confined to only a few half-tones such as white, gray, ochre, and light-blue, with which his light and airy compositions make the impression of ethereal visions, rather then earthly occurrences (e.g. L’Eclipse, (1962); Flux and reflux (1965-1972); “Les sables”, (1978); A Mont Michel közelében /Within the proximity of Mont Saint-Michel/ (1980)). During the course of his multi-decade vocation, he produced a vast number of paintings and portraits of his permanent model: his beloved wife (e.g. Marie-Héléne III. (1939); En poignant, (1946); Marie-Héléne au fauteuil, (1947); Marie-Hélène et sa mère, (1957)). In 1979, he bestowed seven of his works, produced during the period from 1942 to 1970, to the Fine Arts Museum and the Janus Pannonius Museum of Hungary. In 1990 Vieira da Sliva founded a scholarship to support young Hungarian artists, in memorandum of her husband.
One-Man Shows:
1933 • Galerie UP [engravings, with Julian Trevelyan], Paris
1939, 1949, 1952, 1955, 1974 • Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris
1941 • House of Press, Rio de Janeiro
1947 • Quelques maîtres français et des peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs hongrois de l'Ecole de Paris, Galerie de Bussy, Paris
1957 • Galerie Betty Thommen, Bazel
1958 • Galerie Pierre, Paris
1960, 1965, 1969 • Galerie de Cahiers d'Art, Paris
1961 • Galerie du Grand Chène, Lausanne
1965 • Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne • Galerie 27, Oslo
1969, 1974, 1981, 1988 • Galerie Jacob, Paris
1968 • Paysages accordés, Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne
1970 • Galerie Régence, Brussels
1971-1973 • retrospective • Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orleans • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon • Rennes • Lille • Nantes • Rouen
1974 • Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (retrospective)
1975 • Musée Fabre, Montpellier • Galerie Michel Vokaer, Brussels
1976 • Dessins d'~ et de Vieira da Silva, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1977 • Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest • Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs (HU)• G. Information, Tunis
1982 • Hommage à ~, M. Ingres, Montauban
1983-1984 • Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon • G. EMI, Lisbon
1985 • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon
1985 • Hommage à ~, Galerie Jeanne Bucher és Galerie Jacob, Paris
1986 • Nasoni G., Porto • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon
1987 • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon • Bertrand G., Lisbon
1989 • Museum of Modern Art, Porto
1994 • Budapest Historical Museum, Budapest [with Vieira da Silva]
1995 • Hommage à Vieira da Silva et ~, Abbaye de Beaulieu, Ginals (FR)
1997 • Fundaçao ~-Vieira da Silva, Lisbon (retrospective)
1999 • Portraits [with Vieira da Silva], Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
2000 • Salle St. Jean, Hôtel de Ville de Paris • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon.
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1931, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1956 • Salon des Surindépendants, Paris
1932 • Salon d'Automne, Salon des Tuileries, Paris
1936 • Atelier 17, Leicester Gallery, London • New painting from Europe, East River Gallery, New York
1938 • Hungarian Artists in Paris, Tamás Gallery, Budapest • École de Paris, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris
1944 • Atelier 17, Modern Art Museum, New York
1948 • French, Spanish and Hungarian Artists, National Salon, Budapest
1948, 1953, 1960, 1961, 1966, 1967 • Salon de Mai, Paris
1952 • Rythme et couleurs, Musée Cantonal, Lausanne • Les peintres d'aujourd'hui à Paris, Kunsthaus, Zurich
1953 • Biennale de São Paolo
1955 • Le movement dans l'art contemporain, Musée Cantonal, Lausanne
1957 • French Art, Zagrab • Beograd
1959 • From Manet to Our Days, Warsaw • Hommage à Monet, Galerie Art vivant, Paris • 80 Maler der École de Paris, 1900-1959 • Vienna • Linz
1959, 1960 • Documenta II. és III., Kassel
1960 • Hommage à Jeanne Bucher, Galerie Jeanne Bucher • La peinture française d'aujourd'hui, Museum of Tel-Aviv • M. Bezalel, Jerusalem
1961 • Stedelijk M., Amsterdam
1962 • "Francuski Rysunki XVII-XX S", Warsaw
1962, 1968 • Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris
1963 • Contemporary French Painting, National Gallery, Salisbury
1966 • Dix ans d'art vivant 1945-1955, Fondation Maeght, St. Paul de Vence (FR)
1967 • Dix ans d'art vivant 1955-1965, Fondation Maeght, St. Paul de Vence (FR) • Galerie Jacob, Paris • Les quatre éléments, Galerie Cimaise, Paris
1968 • Painting in France 1900-1967 (wandering exhibition), Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal • L'usage de la peinture [with Bryen and Zack], Galerie La Roue, Paris
1969 • Hommage à René Char, Musée de Céret
1970 • Hungarians in Paris, Galerie Zunini, Paris • Twentieth Century Artists of Hungarian Extraction Living Abroad, Műcsarnok, Budapest
1971 • Hommage à Christian et Yvonne Zervos, Grand Palais, Paris
1979 • Spring Exhibition, Hungarian House, Paris • Présence Paris-Budapest, Orangerie des Jardins du Luxembourg
1982 • Reverence to Fatherland. Artists of Hungarian Extraction Living Abroad II., Műcsarnok.
Most Important Graphic Works:
Engravings for the book: P. Guéguen: La chasse au faon rose (ed. Cahiers d'Art, 1938)
Illustrations for Works of M. Mendes, R-M. Rilke and Jorge de Lima, 1944
Fifty gouache for the manuscript of René Char’s Le Temps épars, 1966
Gravures (ed. F. Mermod), Lausanne, 1968.
Works in Public Collections:
R. Salomon Guggenheim Museum, New York
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen
M. Figueira da Foz (POR)
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
Musée Fabre, Montpellier
M. Bezalel, Jerusalem
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs (HU)
M. nacional, Rio de Janeiro
Kunsthalle, Zurich
Centre d'Art contemporain, Abbaye de Beaulieu.
Bibliography:
Szenes Árpád (cat., Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon, 1972)
François, J.: ~, Le Musée de Poche, Paris, 1975
Rey, J.–D.: ~ ou les plages de la mémoire, Cimaise № 107., 1972
Illyés, M.: ~, Művészet, 1978/4.
Philipe, A.: L'éclat de la Lumière (ed. Gallimard, 1978)
Passuth, K.: ~, Irodalmi Újság, 1985/2.
Weelen, G.: Le Banquet de ~ (ed. La Différence, Paris, 1981)
Philipe, A.–Weelen, G.: ~ (monogr., ed. Cercle d'Art, Paris, 1991)
Hommage à ~ (cat., Paris, 2000).
(Translation: ©Vladimir Végh)
painter, graphic artist
(6 May, 1897, Budapest – 16 Jan. 1985, Paris)
Árpád Szenes, during the years he spent as a solider in the First World War, became acquainted with Birman Dezső Bokros, who directed his attention towards the modern arts. Following the war he enrolled in József Rippl-Rónai’s open-school, where he was taught by both Béla Iványi-Grünwald and Károly Kernstok. In the year of 1919, he worked together with Gyula Derkovics, János Kmetty and Emil Novotny, among others, at the colony of artists located in Kecskemét. In order to make a living he worked in the fields during the day, and painted in the evening. Due to a serious illness he acquired during the wearisome labor, he was forced to move back to Budapest, where he moved into a premise in Városmajor Street. Together with István Beöthy, who he became friends with at the time, he studied Buddhism and Oriental Arts. Even though he entered a competition, announced in 1922, with abstract paintings, other works prepared during the course of the same period, such as Két Nővér /Two sisters/ (1922) or Harkányi ablak /Window in Harkány/ (1922-23), reflect the traditions of Hungarian painting at the turn of the century. Even his Önarckép /Self-portrait/, painted in 1930, stood closer in style to that of Berényi and Sőnyi, then to his French contemporaries. In 1924 he traveled to Germany, where he became acquainted with Kandinszkij’s and Klee’s works, later in Italy it was Giotto’s and Pierro della Francesca’s works which made a deep impression on him. Following his arrival to Paris in 1925, he lived in great poverty, making a living of caricatures he produced of visitors of night bars and the cafés within the Montmartre Abbey. He studied simultaneously however, at the Grand Chaumiére Academy, where, in 1929, he became acquainted with Maria Elena Vieira da Silva. The two married in 1930, and within the course of the same year visited the colony of artists located in Nagybánya, Hungary. His marriage meant the end of his haphazard lifestyle, and the art of Vieira da Silva came to its true fruition under his guidance. He often participated in the left-wing gatherings held by the Amis du Monde group together with Étienne Hajdu, Estéve, and Pignon in 1930. In 1931, through his wife, he became acquainted with the Atelier 17 group, lead by William Hayter, which was one of the main influences, which lead to the majority of his works to being produced in the spirit of surrealism (A pár /The pair/ (1933); Gyerek Papírsárkánnyal /Boy with a paper kite/ (1936); Körhinta /Merry-go-round/, (1936)). In relation to one of his most significant works of the period A tehén és az oroszlán /The cow and the lion/ (1934-35) an analyst of his finds two possible interpretations. One possible analysis is that the sight of the two animals seems to suggest the triumph of the strong over the weak, however according to another examination the predator and the prey are simple peacefully embracing one another. His works dating from the second half of the 1930’s convey a much more unanimously pessimistic disposition. Paintings of the period such as Fekete Harsona /Black Trumpet/ (1937) and Utolsó Harc /The last battle/ (1938), with their deep toned colors and quite expressive titles, suggest the pessimistic artist’s vision of the approaching war. In 1939, the couple left Paris, leaving behind their studio located on the St. Jacques Boulevard and the works it contained, to their patron and gallery director, Jeanne Bucher. Following several months spent in Lisbon they moved on to Brazil, in 1940. They lived in Rio de Janeiro for a time, and then settled down in Santa Teresa. Szenes during their years spent in Brazil painted primarily portraits and works of naturalistic style (e.g. Coleçăo Cantos de Mundo, Leitura, 1944) and prepared book illustrations. Under the name of Sylvestre, he founded an art school, which within a short while became the fashionable meeting-place of a number of painters, sculptures, musicians, writers and poets of the time. He began working on his most significant series entitled Bankett, following his return to Paris, in 1947. These works consist of paintings composed of geometric and organic forms, repetitive motifs, and are prepared with a wide range of techniques (e.g. water-color, gouache, oil, pastel, and chalk). In 1949 the French government purchased one of his paintings entitled L'atelier, 1948, which during the upcoming years was followed by a number of further governmental purchases. From the 1950’s, his mode of expression changed dramatically. Within his landscape paintings, which were inspired primarily by nature, however were capable of breaking with reality, the relation between the vertical and horizontal gained great significance. His longitudinal paintings direct the viewer’s glance into the distance along vertical lines, while his landscape-oriented paintings do so along horizontal lines. His color scale becomes confined to only a few half-tones such as white, gray, ochre, and light-blue, with which his light and airy compositions make the impression of ethereal visions, rather then earthly occurrences (e.g. L’Eclipse, (1962); Flux and reflux (1965-1972); “Les sables”, (1978); A Mont Michel közelében /Within the proximity of Mont Saint-Michel/ (1980)). During the course of his multi-decade vocation, he produced a vast number of paintings and portraits of his permanent model: his beloved wife (e.g. Marie-Héléne III. (1939); En poignant, (1946); Marie-Héléne au fauteuil, (1947); Marie-Hélène et sa mère, (1957)). In 1979, he bestowed seven of his works, produced during the period from 1942 to 1970, to the Fine Arts Museum and the Janus Pannonius Museum of Hungary. In 1990 Vieira da Sliva founded a scholarship to support young Hungarian artists, in memorandum of her husband.
One-Man Shows:
1933 • Galerie UP [engravings, with Julian Trevelyan], Paris
1939, 1949, 1952, 1955, 1974 • Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris
1941 • House of Press, Rio de Janeiro
1947 • Quelques maîtres français et des peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs hongrois de l'Ecole de Paris, Galerie de Bussy, Paris
1957 • Galerie Betty Thommen, Bazel
1958 • Galerie Pierre, Paris
1960, 1965, 1969 • Galerie de Cahiers d'Art, Paris
1961 • Galerie du Grand Chène, Lausanne
1965 • Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne • Galerie 27, Oslo
1969, 1974, 1981, 1988 • Galerie Jacob, Paris
1968 • Paysages accordés, Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne
1970 • Galerie Régence, Brussels
1971-1973 • retrospective • Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orleans • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon • Rennes • Lille • Nantes • Rouen
1974 • Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (retrospective)
1975 • Musée Fabre, Montpellier • Galerie Michel Vokaer, Brussels
1976 • Dessins d'~ et de Vieira da Silva, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1977 • Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest • Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs (HU)• G. Information, Tunis
1982 • Hommage à ~, M. Ingres, Montauban
1983-1984 • Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon • G. EMI, Lisbon
1985 • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon
1985 • Hommage à ~, Galerie Jeanne Bucher és Galerie Jacob, Paris
1986 • Nasoni G., Porto • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon
1987 • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon • Bertrand G., Lisbon
1989 • Museum of Modern Art, Porto
1994 • Budapest Historical Museum, Budapest [with Vieira da Silva]
1995 • Hommage à Vieira da Silva et ~, Abbaye de Beaulieu, Ginals (FR)
1997 • Fundaçao ~-Vieira da Silva, Lisbon (retrospective)
1999 • Portraits [with Vieira da Silva], Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
2000 • Salle St. Jean, Hôtel de Ville de Paris • Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon.
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1931, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1956 • Salon des Surindépendants, Paris
1932 • Salon d'Automne, Salon des Tuileries, Paris
1936 • Atelier 17, Leicester Gallery, London • New painting from Europe, East River Gallery, New York
1938 • Hungarian Artists in Paris, Tamás Gallery, Budapest • École de Paris, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris
1944 • Atelier 17, Modern Art Museum, New York
1948 • French, Spanish and Hungarian Artists, National Salon, Budapest
1948, 1953, 1960, 1961, 1966, 1967 • Salon de Mai, Paris
1952 • Rythme et couleurs, Musée Cantonal, Lausanne • Les peintres d'aujourd'hui à Paris, Kunsthaus, Zurich
1953 • Biennale de São Paolo
1955 • Le movement dans l'art contemporain, Musée Cantonal, Lausanne
1957 • French Art, Zagrab • Beograd
1959 • From Manet to Our Days, Warsaw • Hommage à Monet, Galerie Art vivant, Paris • 80 Maler der École de Paris, 1900-1959 • Vienna • Linz
1959, 1960 • Documenta II. és III., Kassel
1960 • Hommage à Jeanne Bucher, Galerie Jeanne Bucher • La peinture française d'aujourd'hui, Museum of Tel-Aviv • M. Bezalel, Jerusalem
1961 • Stedelijk M., Amsterdam
1962 • "Francuski Rysunki XVII-XX S", Warsaw
1962, 1968 • Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris
1963 • Contemporary French Painting, National Gallery, Salisbury
1966 • Dix ans d'art vivant 1945-1955, Fondation Maeght, St. Paul de Vence (FR)
1967 • Dix ans d'art vivant 1955-1965, Fondation Maeght, St. Paul de Vence (FR) • Galerie Jacob, Paris • Les quatre éléments, Galerie Cimaise, Paris
1968 • Painting in France 1900-1967 (wandering exhibition), Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal • L'usage de la peinture [with Bryen and Zack], Galerie La Roue, Paris
1969 • Hommage à René Char, Musée de Céret
1970 • Hungarians in Paris, Galerie Zunini, Paris • Twentieth Century Artists of Hungarian Extraction Living Abroad, Műcsarnok, Budapest
1971 • Hommage à Christian et Yvonne Zervos, Grand Palais, Paris
1979 • Spring Exhibition, Hungarian House, Paris • Présence Paris-Budapest, Orangerie des Jardins du Luxembourg
1982 • Reverence to Fatherland. Artists of Hungarian Extraction Living Abroad II., Műcsarnok.
Most Important Graphic Works:
Engravings for the book: P. Guéguen: La chasse au faon rose (ed. Cahiers d'Art, 1938)
Illustrations for Works of M. Mendes, R-M. Rilke and Jorge de Lima, 1944
Fifty gouache for the manuscript of René Char’s Le Temps épars, 1966
Gravures (ed. F. Mermod), Lausanne, 1968.
Works in Public Collections:
R. Salomon Guggenheim Museum, New York
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen
M. Figueira da Foz (POR)
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
Musée Fabre, Montpellier
M. Bezalel, Jerusalem
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs (HU)
M. nacional, Rio de Janeiro
Kunsthalle, Zurich
Centre d'Art contemporain, Abbaye de Beaulieu.
Bibliography:
Szenes Árpád (cat., Fundaçao Calouste Gulbekian, Lisbon, 1972)
François, J.: ~, Le Musée de Poche, Paris, 1975
Rey, J.–D.: ~ ou les plages de la mémoire, Cimaise № 107., 1972
Illyés, M.: ~, Művészet, 1978/4.
Philipe, A.: L'éclat de la Lumière (ed. Gallimard, 1978)
Passuth, K.: ~, Irodalmi Újság, 1985/2.
Weelen, G.: Le Banquet de ~ (ed. La Différence, Paris, 1981)
Philipe, A.–Weelen, G.: ~ (monogr., ed. Cercle d'Art, Paris, 1991)
Hommage à ~ (cat., Paris, 2000).
(Translation: ©Vladimir Végh)
