The exhibition’s title was inspired by Dezső Tandori’s selected bibliography. Behind this playful title, however, visitors will see a selection of major works by leading figures of twentieth-century Hungarian art. Just as a bibliography brings earlier publications together, this exhibition offers an overview of the most valuable pieces in the Tandori collection. It provides both an art-historical review and a personal imprint: it reveals Tandori’s way of thinking, his taste, and the intellectual milieu that defined his entire career.
Dezső Tandori was not only a defining poet and writer of Hungarian literature. Through his genre-crossing, boundary-breaking creative attitude, he became an iconic figure of the entire Hungarian art world. He lived in self-inflicted seclusion, in a peculiar symbiosis with the “beings” of his flat; his toys and everyday objects became key characters in his literary universe. Although he regularly shared the small details of his life in his writings, one area remained hidden: the Tandori couple’s art collection, which for decades was shrouded in complete secrecy.
Many knew that the “Tandori gallery” existed, yet its contents remained unknown. Tandori consistently guarded his private world and the objects that carried personal meaning for him. Through recurring literary motifs, readers felt they understood the atmosphere of the poet’s apartment on Lánchíd Street, but the art collection was never mentioned. This exhibition — like the 2021 show A Place Designated for Absence, organized after the couple’s passing — reveals this hidden legacy after long negotiations and in close collaboration with the heirs. Although the material shown here is fragmentary, it marks an important milestone: it offers a new perspective on Tandori’s artistic and literary context.
These exceptionally valuable works of twentieth-century Hungarian art are now on public view for the first time in the exhibition spaces of Einspach & Czapolai Fine Art. The pieces highlight moments of legendary artistic friendships, master–student dialogues, research, and gestures of mutual respect. Perhaps the following line from Heraclitus describes Tandori’s collector’s sensibility most precisely: “…one must rise above the world of diversity in order to find what remains unchanged behind constant change.” This idea also links Tandori to the artists on view: although each followed their own path, their work shares a search for the deeper connections of existence — the same sensibility that permeated Tandori’s universe.
Among the featured artists are such pivotal figures as Béla Veszelszky, who sought to capture the purified order of the world through his paint-dots, or Dezső Korniss, from whom Tandori learned the balance between preserving and transcending tradition. Equally significant is Ilona Keserü, the “great painter of the world,” whose powerful, archetypal work defined the collection’s visual direction and closely resonated with Tandori’s archaic use of language. And the decades-long friendship of István Nádler and his wife, Vera, was also crucial for Tandori: through Nádler’s painting, which opens up invisible dimensions, he became a key figure in the collection. His works, together with those of Imre Bak, János Fajó, Tamás Hencze, and Endre Tót, adorned the walls of the Tandori couple’s home in Szentendre.
A shared artistic value system, the existential weight of creation, and a clear vision of the world through artistic form shaped a spiritual environment in which these works could enter into dialogue with one another through Tandori’s art. The paintings formed an organic part of the poet and his wife’s everyday life — works that became inseparable from their own artistic existence. Perhaps it was precisely this personal bond that explains why Tandori kept the collection hidden. Yet the destiny of artworks is to be seen by those receptive to them.
This exhibition seeks to present that organically evolving artistic space to the public, revealing works previously concealed or thought lost — pieces long waiting to step into view and open a new chapter in the interpretation of Tandori’s oeuvre.
Nikolett Kokas
The exhibition presents works by the following artists:
Margit ANNA, Imre ÁMOS, Imre BAK, Endre BÁLINT, Géza BENE, János FAJÓ, Krisztián FREY, Jenő GADÁNYI, Tihamér GYARMATHY, Tamás HENCZE, Lajos KASSÁK, Ilona KESERÜ, Ignác KOKAS, Béla KONDOR, Dezső KORNISS, Albin MÁRFFY, András MENGYÁN, István NÁDLER, Csaba Vilmos PERLROTT, Hugó SCHEIBER, Piroska SZÁNTÓ, Endre TÓT, Béla VESZELSZKY