Colour, Light, Brilliance – an oeuvre exhibition of Ödön Márffy

He encountered the innovative painting of Matisse and Cézanne in Paris, and the two proved inspiring for his own vision. Upon returning to Hungary, he became an active organizer of the local art scene. He was one of the founders of The Eight, the group that spearheaded modern efforts in Hungary, and then of KÚT in 1924. His friends included celebrated artists and intellectuals of the time, among them Endre Ady, Lajos Fülep and József Rippl-Rónai. In 1920 he married Ady’s widow, Csinszka, the subject of lyrically beautiful portraits. While his remarkable lifework includes several creative periods, a sensitive use of colour, a modern vision, a French elegance and a rich painterliness came to be permanent hallmarks of his individual mode of expression.

 

A comprehensive selection from the oeuvre with a special emphasis on the most mature, and most popular, works, the exhibition will feature, beside several well-loved masterpieces, a few genuine rarities, paintings that are shown in public for the first time. More than 100 in number and presented on two floors of the Kogart House, the portraits, landscapes, watersides scenes, interiors and representations of the world of circus offer a representative  overview of Márffy’s work.

 

Márffy’s contemporary reviewer seems to provide an almost perfect description of this exhibition, which will be open from April 2, 2010 until August 1: “All the pictures on the walls burst with a luxury of fresh, serene and light colours. Fruit still lifes, portraits, landscapes, nudes, figural compositions in frames of lavish verdure – all relish in the sensual, fiery torrent of summer light. These are charming testimonies to a high-spirited joie de vivre, a carefree optimism that flourishes in the harmony of clean colours…”(Pesti Napló, 1930)

 

Video taken at the guided tour on 29 May.