Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-20

III and works OF applied arts Dy coJem-
r IN porary Hungarian artists will be
opened with a private view in the
National Gallery of Art, National Mu-
scum, Wednesday afternoon, April %
This exhibition was assembled by the Hun
gariar National Council of Fine Arts and is
shown in this country under the joint auspices
of the American Federation of Arts, the Amer1-
can Hungarian Foundation and the Hungarian
National Council. Among the patrons OF the
exhibition Count Stephen Bethlen, prime
minister of Hungary; Lewis Walko, minister
of foreign affairs, Hungary; Count Kuno Kle-
belsberg, minister of education Hungary; Count
Laszlo Szechenyi, minister from Hungary to the
United States and j. Butler Wright Minister
from the United States to Hungary.
The exhibition comes to us here in the ma
ture of an international exchange an exhibition
of American paintings and small bronzes as
sembled by the American Federation of Arts
through the cooperation of the American Hun
garian Foundation having been shown in the
Nemzeti Salon, Budapest, under equally dis
tinguished patronage in February. The purpose
of these international exchanges in art is not
only to extend the fame of the artists whose
works are included. but to bring those of the
exhibiting nations into closer sympathy and
better understanding Hungarian art has been
as little known up to the present time in the
United States as American art has been in
Hungary. The exhibition opening this week is
therefore, calculated to extend pleasurably our
acquaintance.
Hungary is an old country, with thousand
years of cultural development as a background.
The tides which, ebbing and flowing, have con-
stituted the history of art have each left their
mark in the way of buildings and treasure. The
present era of growth and development began
with the re-establishment of self-government
in Hungary, in 1867, when Budapest was en-
tirely rebuilt and became the center of Hun
garian culture.
In architecture, in painting, IN sculpture, and
perhaps especially in the industrial arts, Hun
garians have invariably manifested marked ma
taonal characteristics.
Among all the fine arts" says Erwin Ybl,
painting stands nearest to the Hungarian soul,
and the Hungarian artistic spirit has attained
its most characteristic development in this
field" The name of Munkacsy is world-famous.
But Munkacsy belonged to the last century and
his followers and artistic descendants have
Travelled far since he laid down the brush. A
Hungarian painter is said to have been the first
to produce picture in the style of the French
impreSSioniSt school, and that production was
before this school came into existence. Today
there are modernists in Hungary, but for the
most part the Hungarian painters and sculptors
have proved themselves independent of mind,
have made their own traditions rather than fol-
lowed traditions made by others. Obviously,
they have sat at the feet of the great masters,
regardless of nationality. In most instances they
have travelled widely have observed closely but
have returned home to paint, to model and to
design IN their own way rather than in the way
of others.
When our American exhibition was shown
In Budapest much surprise was expressed by
the Hungarian critics that it so traditional,
so in the spirit Of the art of their own nation.
The same comment may be made In regard to
this Hungarian exhibition. But it should be
remembered that, after all, the same principles
underlie all art. and American artists as well
as Hungarian have in most instances gone to
the same source for inspiration
But one will find in this Hungarian collection =
works essentially Hungarian in character
paintings of Hungarian life and landscape, sig
nificant not only because of their artistic merit
but subjective individuality
One of the most interesting and important
canvases in this exhibition viii be a portrait
of Nicholas Horthy, Governor of Hungary, by
Bartholomew Karlovszky, born in Hungary in
1885 and pupil Of Munkacsy-a powerful in
depreciation of character a work of pronounced
dignity
There will also be portrait of Count Robert
Zselanszky, by Edward Ballo, one of the older
school of painters, who has had many illus
trious persons among his sitters and who is
now professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Budapest, one of the promoters of the National
Salon.
An engaging picture to be exhibited is "Gyp-
Sizes" by Ethelbert Ivanyi Grunwald, to which
a gold medal was recently awarded in the ex-
position at Barcelona-a fanciful theme Sug-
costing little the work of our own Clifford
Beal "Carpet-Weaving Woman" by Peter
Kalman, and Peasant Seamstress," by Isaac
Perlmutter, figure compositions, will be found
very nationalistic in style and vigorously rem
dered. Extremely individualistic is the work
of Count Julius Batthyany, one of the younger
school, whose work is included. He is illustrator
as well as painter and designer of decorative
panels.
The majority of the paintings in this ex-
hibition have been sent directly from Europe,
but six or more have been added by Hungarian
artists travelling residing in, he Init led