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A nagy érdeklődésre való tekintettel az Otthon, édes otthon időszaki kiállítást november 2-ig meghosszabbítjuk!
At home, Sweet home
Intimate spaces, talkative objects - intimism in the art of István Szőnyi
Opening: 24.05.2025, Saturday 15:00
Thematic exhibition series of István Szőnyi's graphic works fourth came to the exhibition. Village life, Life on the waterfront, and the Father and daughter After temporary exhibitions, the current theme is István Szőnyi's home, the interior and exterior spaces surrounding him, and mainly his home in Zebegény.
The exhibition traces an arc from István Szőnyi's childhood to his becoming a father, and from the birth of his daughter Zsuzsa to her becoming a granddaughter. Szőnyi moved with his wife, Melinda Bartóky, to his father-in-law's summer house in Zebegény in 1924 and in the same year his daughter Zsuzsa was born, followed two years later by his son Péter. It was in Zebegény that Szőnyi's painting came to fruition, where he developed his distinctive and unique style. The subjects of his paintings also changed. In addition to the Danube landscape, nature and the people living with it, family, home and intimate, intimate moments came to the fore. He made many sketches, studies and paintings of his wife and children, which follow their development. Their graphic works are at once lyrical, emotional, personal and timeless. The exhibition is primarily a thematic selection of the rarely exhibited graphic material in the collection, but also includes some of Szőnyi's paintings from his childhood. The exhibition also includes family photographs, most of which were taken by the painter himself of his family and children, with artistic exactitude.
In the exhibition Father and Daughter - The World of Childhood in the Paintings of István Szőnyi, we have also thought of the youngest museum visitors. While the parents are looking at the exhibition, the little ones won't be bored either! The childhood drawings of István Szőnyi and his sister Anna are displayed on the walls at their height.
Just like the previous exhibition, most of the graphic works, which form an important part of Szőnyi's oeuvre, are sketches, studies, a kind of visual note, sometimes a snapshot captured with a few strokes, sometimes a more elaborate composition, reflecting the deep attachment that Szőnyi had to Zebegény and the Danube.
Szőnyi, one of the most successful members of the generation of Hungarian painters between the two world wars, moved from the capital to Zebegény in 1924, at the age of thirty, as a young married couple, which marked a turning point in his life and his art. It was here that he found everything he needed to develop his art, discovered the inseparable unity of man and landscape, and the beauty of simple things. His main subjects, besides the Danube bend, became village life, his family and the surrounding landscape. He spent a lot of time capturing life on the waterfront, fishermen, people waiting for the ferryman, boats rocking in solitude and the landscape of the Danube in general. With his lyrical style, he conjured up an idyllic Arcadia of the small Danube-side village, in which the river and the people who live alongside it play a leading role.
As a member of the Gresham Circle, founded in the mid-1920s, Szőnyi was one of those artists who chose quiet retirement instead of active social involvement after the Great War and the events that followed in Hungary. The members of the circle did not believe that things could be changed, were not political, distanced themselves from modern artistic aspirations, and were far removed from the avant-garde spirit. They believed in eternal values, such as nature, and in painting based on nature, which had its roots in Nagybánya. The small village of Zebegény, hidden among the hills in the Danube bend, offered an ideal setting for immersion in the simple beauty of nature and life.
Szőnyi produced countless sketches and studies, captivating in their freshness and spontaneity. The pictures, which can be regarded as full-fledged works of art, trace the behind-the-scenes of the creative process, and show the artist experimenting with different techniques, compositional methods, colours and lights.
In addition to his paintings from Zebegény, the exhibition also includes sketches and watercolours he made during his travels, including the paintings he did in Italy in the last months of his life.
In 1957 and 1959 Szőnyi visited his daughter Zsuzsa in Rome, who had emigrated with her husband, Mátyás Triznya in 1949. During her last visit in 1959, she made many sketches on the beaches and harbours around Rome, making up for what she had missed as a Rome scholar in 1929. The material was to have been shown in an exhibition in Italy, which was cancelled after his death in 1960.
Browse the catalogue of the two-part exhibition Zebegény through Szőnyi's eyes:
The exhibition is a selection of graphic material from the collection, which visitors can only see on special occasions. The watercolours, drawings and etchings on display are artistic impressions of the simple rural life that Szőnyi loved so much.
Szőnyi found everything he needed to develop his art in Zebegény. He was able to study the inseparable unity of man and landscape at close quarters, to immerse himself in the beauty of simple things. After his move here, the main subjects of his painting became the landscape, village life, his family and his idyllic everyday life, with the animals and objects he used every day.
He made countless sketches and studies - captivating in their freshness and spontaneity - of people and animals at work, captured in stolen moments. The pictures, which could be considered full-fledged works of art, reveal the behind-the-scenes of the creative process, showing the artist experimenting with different techniques, compositions, colours and lights, which he later used in his panel paintings. Szőnyi was constantly collecting material for his paintings, capturing everything he found interesting about the world around him. He started from the realistic view, but his works go beyond naturalism. They are characterised by Szőnyi's lyricism, the serenity and humanity that radiates from him and that shines through in all his works.
The temporary exhibition is open from 20 May to 13 August.
We show Rome and its surroundings through the eyes of two artists, Master and Disciple, father-in-law and son-in-law. In addition to his creative work, István Szőnyi was also a teacher. His son-in-law Mátyás Triznya was his pupil at his private school. Not only did he learn the tricks of the trade from his father-in-law, but they were also friends. Shortly before his death, he gave this testimony about their relationship:
"It took long, long decades before one could safely pick up a brush, especially in the shadow of a great painter like István Szőnyi..."
From the early stages of his career, Szőnyi was keen to immortalise himself. The works form an almost coherent "self-portrait gallery", showing the artist's constantly changing face. His very early paintings from the period 1910-11, despite their eventuality, already present the image of a self-conscious artist.
In Szőnyi's paintings, his family members and relatives play a prominent role. From 1924 in particular, his pictures of his parents and siblings are replaced by portraits of his wife and child. The figures he loved most were depicted in the most varied ways and techniques. From fresh pencil and charcoal drawings to reproduced prints and large painted panels. In the final section of the exhibition, you will see more portraits of the characters and typical figures of the Zebegény village life that you have found.
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