Art collection
FERENC BÉRES
1922-1996
The founder and the first donator
The original collection of Sárospatak Art Galery was founded by a folk art singer called Ferenc Béres, who used to be a student in the Reformed College of Sárospatak. He donated his graphic arts collection to the town in 1968 and this generous act was followed by many people.
LIFE AND EDUCATION
He was born in a small village and lived in a very convergent but poor family. His parents were farmers who brought up seven children. Ferenc Béres claimed that he had two mothers: her mother who gave him birth, and the alma mater in Sárospatak. His teachers were always rigouros but it was a kind of affectionate rigour. At that time he was mainly interested in drawing and painting until his music teacher discovered and inspired him to deal with music. He graduated from Pázmány Péter University and earned a degree as an art historian and ethnographist.
CONNECTION WITH SÁROSPATAK
His relationship with Sárospatak is a shining example of loyalty.
He regularly visited the town and often performed at cultural events, was singing at students’ meetings and in churches.
Ferenc Béres belonged to those former students who lobbied for the settlement to regain the rank of being a town again in 1968.
To provide financial help for the alma mater he travelled to America and collected more than ten thousands of dollars by giving concerts.
In recognition of his merits and devotion to Sárospatak he was awarded with honorary citizenship.
His special talent enabled him to become one of the outstanding individuals of Hungarian people inside and outside our borders.
CAREER
He is well known in Hungary and beyond the country as the King of folk art singing. By giving hundreds of concerts, singing psalms and praises he left a long lasting experience to his audience. In recognition of his art he was donated with the Liszt Ferenc award by the Hungarian State. The recordings of his art represent an eternal value and we must preserve it faithfully for posterity.
JÁNOS ANDRÁSSY KURTA
1911-2008
ONE OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING ARTISTS OF HUNGARIAN FOLK SCULPTURE
LIFE
The sculptor was born in a small village in 1911.
Due to family tragedies he was sent to an orphanage but luckily he was adopted and brought up by foster parents.
Andrássy Kurta started his career in Budapest as a servant. Later he became a student of a famous academic sculptor,
called Jenő Bory. After attending the department of sculptural arts he acquired everything that is needed to be a good artist.
WORK
Finishing the art college he started working at the workhouse of Medgyessy Ferenc.
In the 30’s the young artist regularly participated in the exhibitions of the National Salon.
The most significant intellectual direction in his works was the popularity and the folk literature of the 20th century.
The interest in his art was growing after 1990 and he was invited to several exhibitions.
Apart from sculptures he also produced paintings, drawings, reliefs, medals and graphics.
His writings on art were published in various periodicals and daily newspapers.
He depicts the typical movements of the working people and his statuettes are characterized by strong social sensitivity.
Andrássy-Kurta has a populist way of looking at things. His sculptures are simple compositions, chiefly characteristic portraits.
CONNECTION WITH SÁROSPATAK
He donated his complete works to the town in 1975.
The town showed respect and chose him to be an honorary citizen of Sárospatak in 1981.
The precious collection of his art was opened in the same year.
Most of his statues and plastics can be found in the Art Gallery of Sárospatak as a sculpture exhibition.
JOSEPH DOMJAN
1907-1992
“MASTER OF THE COLOUR WOODCUT”
LIFE
He was born in 1907 Hungary, Budapest but lived and worked elsewhere.
The oldest of 12 children in a poor family, which he supported by working when still a teenager.
He spent his early years as an engine fitter and foundryman.
Being unemployed during the Depression he toured several European countries on foot,
covering 10,000 miles and earning his way by selling paintings and sketches.
Upon his return to Hungary he won a scholarship to study at the Budapest Academy of Arts,
and six years later became a member of the faculty. Unfortunately in 1945 a bomb destroyed his studio and many of his artworks.
When Hungary's failed uprising against Soviet domination came in 1956, he emigrated with his family to Switzerland.
A year later they moved to the United States, and settled in New York where he became an American citizen.
WORK
As a young artist Domján developed a unique style in colour woodcut art that soon gained him international fame and recognition.
His art has many affinities with Asian art as he spent six months on a lecture tour in China where his artistic excellence was
recognized and received the "Master of the Colour Wooodcut" award. This recognition is handed out once every one hundred years.
He elevated the visual aspects of Hungarian folk art to a universally appreciated and understood form of art.
Domján’s art is being rediscovered by a new generation in Hungary. Domján became a celebrated artist with over five
hundred exhibitions on four continents and his colour woodcut prints are on display in major museums in the United States,
Japan, and Europe. More than 130 museums on four continents include Domjan’s works in their collections.
He is considered to be a master in the medium of the colour woodcut. Moreover, he is the recipient of important prizes and Hungary’s highest art award,
the Kossuth Prize and he also illustrated 40 books.
His early works are in the possession of the Sárospatak Art Gallery, and cannot be seen anywhere else.
HIS TECHNIC
His contributions to the art of woodcut are highly original. The inspiration for Domján's intricate woodcuts is clearly rooted in Hungarian folk art
and in his love of nature. His complex technique used overprinted layers of oil colours, sometimes as many as 21,
and eight different wood-blocks for each image to obtain a deep, vibrant colour range and rich three dimensional texture.
Domjan, who began his career as a painter making his first woodcut in 1947.
He treated the colour woodcut like a painting therefore the final result often resembles a textured painting more than a print.
Most of the prints are shown in frames without glass fronts, so that the painterly surfaces may be appreciated. Instead of printer’s ink,
Domjan often used oil paint on his woodcuts.
With this new technique, he applied many layers of rich colour to create paintings with woodcuts.
“I succeeded in bringing to the world something that had not existed before” he said.
WOODCUT AND OTHER MEDIA
Domjan's major style can be easily and well translated into other media.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan used to sell brass Christmas ornaments designed by Domjan.
His composition ''The Big Poppy'' was woven at the Royal Tapestry Workshops in Madrid, and ''Peacock of Carnations'' in Aubusson, France.
His lacy, folklore-inspired designs were executed by the Royal Tapestry Workshops in Madrid and at Aubusson in France.
There are also two doors, painted by Domjan’s talented wife and collaborator Evelyn,
and selected objects from the Museum’s worldwide collection that reveal the universality of Domjan’s folklore themes.
A phoenix from Thailand, a carved chest from Transylvania, a fish-shaped jar from India,
a rooster-shaped serving vessel from Russia and horses from Indonesia and Mexico illustrate this common thread of human experience.
AVANTGARD
UNDER CONSTRUCTION...
MIXED CLASS WORKS
UNDER CONSTRUCTION...
Translation into English made possible by the English for V4 Countries Heritage Presentation project supported by the Visegrad Fund. Translations by students and a teacher of English of Eszterhazy Károly College, Comenius Faculty Sárospatak.
