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TÓTH, Menyhért
TÓTH, Menyhért
painter
(2 Jan. 1904, Szeged-Mórahalom – 11 Jan. 1980, Budapest)
1930-1935: Fine Arts College of Budapest, masters: János Vaszary, István Réti and László Kandó. Menyhért is a regular member of the Colony of Artists in Tokaj, and the group of painters in Baja; one of the founding members of the creative camp of Hajós. 1973: István Nagy Award; 1974: Silver Grade Award of the Work Honor of the Hungarian People’s Republic; 1976: Hungarian People’s Republic’s Meritorious Artist Award; 1990: Posthumous Kossuth Award. Studies: 1967: Czechoslovakia on the occasion of the ‘Naive’ Artists of Bratislava Exhibition; 1975: Canary Islands; 1977: Cagnes-sur-Mer [International Painting Festival]. Tóth spent his childhood years in Miske, Hungary, where he returned to live following the completion of his studies. During 1945 and 1958 he lead his vocation isolatedly, making a living from agricultural work and house painting. Although he continued painting his works were not exhibited, with the exception a show in 1941, until 1964. This was when his works, following three decades of anonymity, became known to he open public. After 1974, the county council of Bács-Kiskun signed an agreement for his life work. His works were produced in the spirit of the village, and found their true residence in nature. He fused the cognitive and emotional experience of the village dwellers with his own personal understanding, utilizing the consciousness of the artist, and the tools and instruments of modern art. His works, being unattached to any specific teaching or style, were able to disregard the rules of the painting profession existent at the time, and display affinity with the perfection seeking, nature oriented, cosmic world concept of naïve painters and primitive art of his time. He was an instinctive artist, who concentrated on the commission of the work of art, which lead him from a detailed naturalistic mode of portraying reality, through the simplification of stylized forms, towards abstraction. His painting ideal was the round form, encompassing within itself the sense of completeness, and an instinctive painting style filled with a strong ethical charge. The period of his career ranging from 1930 to 1945 was permeated greatly by allegoric portrayal. Through his experimentation with cubism, during his college years, he attempted to portray the inner-order of forms, through their geometric sectioning and division. Serpentine line diagrams and golden yellow colors dominate his decorative, calligraphic drawings. His early works are characterized by the folkloristic ornamentation typical of the region of Kalocsa, by the conventionalized fantasy and dream world of surrealism, and the line technique of secessionism. The themes of his epic paintings are rooted in the everyday life of the village, and the everyday tasks encompassed by them. such themes are the peasantry surroundings, the naïve fairytale world, the unity of contrasts, the struggle between good and bad, and the cycle of life. He left behind the contingent details of the human body in favor of a more universal form. In 1945 he even painted a Soviet soldier. His portrait of Lenin, reworked repeatedly, is one of his most transfigured and enigmatic works, and finally received the title A bölcs / Filozófus (1977) (The Wiseman / Philosopher). At the time, the magical picture-labeling or “sentence-panderols” of metaphysical content may be noticed in many of his works (e.g.: Költözködés, /Moving/ 1938; Boldogasszony, (1939) /Blessed Virgin/; A jó kovács, (1942) /The good blacksmith/,. Up until 1958 his forms are tied much more closely to the spectacle elements of reality. Forms embodied with colors, and lifelike elements gain importance in his works, as opposed to spontaneous fairytale like surrealist representation, which is lead by the intention of forming specific prototypes. Within the framework of his expressive-realist, sculpturesque and serene paintings he stylizes fate and human life itself: dibbling peasants, scenes in fields, repetitive movements (i.e.: Flock of goats, Fishing boy, Workers picking cabbage, Grain selectors, Adobes makers, Trashing) occur frequently. A common motif is that of the good shepherd with his sheep. The forms adjust concisely to one another, and form dynamic rhythmic blocks (Harmonikás (1949) /The accordion player/; Palántázók, (1952) /Dibblers/). The key tone of his color-scale at the time, is blue. His portrait paintings unfold as a continuation of his expressive spiritual memoirs (Ifjúkori önarckép (1934-35) /Young Self-portrait/). Symbolic movements strengthen in his irregular, contingent, and many times distorted portrayal of the human skull, providing a more universal classification of the human species (Ősöm, 1950 /My Ancestor/) His expressive-realist skull series is initiative of the mature style he developed later on. His figures are in many cases grotesque, with wounded eyes, bird-like heads, recalling the beliefs, superstitions and olden fears of the village dwellers. His ironic concept of the human form is marked also by the fact the Menyhért places himself into his pictures. The outer characteristics of his shattered body may be observed in the human figures found in his paintings; his eye was infected by phthisis, his half leg froze as a painter apprentice. Symbolic, condensing depiction takes the place of the mythological and the jubilant during the period of his career spanning up to 1974. With time he gave up perspective depiction, his illustration mode moved towards a frontal one, and was thus reduced to two dimensions. Motifs were portrayed horizontally, beside, above and below one another. Amongst his themes occur animals with human characteristics (with human faces, humanoid fish, he even depicts trees as resembling humans), still life pieces, and works consisting of solely one or two forms. (Parasztok, (1971) /Peasants/, Afrika (1972) /Africa/) He depicts living creatures and inanimate objects in organic unity with one another, thus signaling not only a unified zest for life, but also a sense of fear and drama (Veszély (1972) /Danger/). His so-called “white” period is a synthesis of his entire life work, a sort of reform of painting itself. His lines become less and less expressive, serving merely indicative purposes, and move more and more towards a single white color. From the 1960’s onwards he primed the majority of his paintings white, onto which motifs of pink, ocher, and broken gray were added. During the 1970’s the priming was changed to more vivid colors. He added onto the coats of paint taken to the canvas with knife an at times veil-like, while in other cases uneven and rough gray-scale white. In such a manner the drastic tones ensconced, and the plain of the paintings became more pastel like, obscure and gained a relief-like effect (Az ocean gondja (1972) /Trouble of the ocean/, Védelem (1972) /Protection/). He reworked a number of his previously finished works in this layered intermittent manner, and in many instances also prepared their white versions. The expression mode of the ancient and folkloristic was combined, in his works, with the achievements of modern European painting: he revealed a new method of formal and contextual abstraction by depicting the inner and outer states of village life.
One-Man Shows:
1941 • Műbarát, Budapest
1964 • János Tornyai Museum, Hódmezővásárhely (HU) (cat.)
1968 • Miske • Nagy L. Library, Kalocsa (HU)
1969 • Club of the Patriotic Popular Front (cat.), Budapest • Regional Historical Museum, Tokaj (HU)
1970 • King Saint Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár (HU) (cat.)
1973 • Csepel Gallery, Budapest
1974 • József Katona Museum, Kecskemét (cat.) • Community Centre, Kiskunfélegyháza (HU) • Fine Art Little Gallery, Kalocsa (HU)
1975 • Kis-Duna Gallery, Soroksár (HU)
1976 • Műcsarnok, Budapest (life-work exhibition, cat.)
1977 • Cagnes-sur-Mer (FR) • András Jósa Museum, Nyíregyháza (cat.) • Székesfehérvár (HU) • Dunaújváros (HU)
1978 • County Hospital, Kecskemét (HU) • County Community Centre, Veszprém (HU)
1979 • Community Centre of Village Hajós (HU) • Szeged-Mórahalom (HU) • József Katona Museum, Kecskemét (HU) (cat.)
1980 • Vigadó Gallery, Budapest (cat.)
1981 • ~ Memorial Exhibition, István Türr Museum, Baja (HU)
1983 • Gallery of Gödöllő, Gödöllő (HU)
1984 • Gallery of Kecskemét (life-work exhibition, cat.), Kecskemét (HU) • Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest (cat.)
1992 • Palme House, Budapest • Expo '92, Art Pavilion, Sevilla (cat.)
1993 • Csepel Gallery, Budapest
1994 • ~ ’s Pilgrimage from Black to White (exhibition, commemorate the 90th anniversary of his birth), KLTE, Debrecen (HU)
1995 • Festőterem, Sopron (cat.)
2000 • Vigadó Gallery, Budapest • Gallery 13, Soroksár, Budapest.
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1966 • Baja Days, Baja (HU)
1968 • International Triennale of Naive Painting, Bratislava
1973 • István Nagy Centenary, Baja (HU)
1975 • Exhibition of Artists from County Bács-Kiskun, Szimferopol (Soviet Union)
1977 • International Triennale of Painting, Cagnes-sur-Mer (FR) • Hungarian Fine Art Exhibition, Mexico
1978 • Triennale of Painting, New Delhi
1979 • Hungarian Painting of the Twentieth Century, Lissboa • Contemporary Hungarian Art, Madrid
1980 • XXXIX. Biennial of Venice, Venice
2000 • Vigadó Gallery, Budapest • Barcsay Room, Budapest.
Works in Public Collections:
Municipal Picture Gallery, Budapest
Gallery of Kecskemét, Kecskemét (HU)
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest.
Biblography:
~ verstöredékei [közreadja
"A szeretet emeli föl az embert"- ~ vallomása [közreadja
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