This grand anniversary exhibition traces the hundred-year history of the Old Artists’ Colony in Szentendre, founded in 1926, featuring not only well-known, iconic works but also those rarely seen or recently discovered. Artists associated with the colony include, to name just a few, Jenő Barcsay, Béla Czóbel, Béla Kondor, Dezső Korniss, Pál Miháltz, the recently deceased János Aknay, and, among contemporary artists, József Baksai, Péter Bereznai, József Buhály, Henrik Martin, and Imre Szakács, for whom this environment played an important role in their life’s work. This occasion is quite exceptional, primarily due to the centennial and the spacious exhibition spaces — the three wings of the MűvészetMalom. Thus, in one place, we have the opportunity to survey the major periods in the history of the artists’ colony, from the works of nearly a hundred artists — including the founders and even some of the masters they regarded as role models, such as Károly Ferenczy, Béla Iványi Grünwald, and István Réti — all the way to the work of those still creating at the colony today.
To provide an overview of the past century, we had to select a few key perspectives and events. Thus, it is instructive to situate the Szentendre artists’ colony within the history of other domestic and foreign artists’ colonies, or, in a narrower context, within the artistic life of Szentendre, but also to examine on its own terms the dynamics by which it operated over the past century, as it has had both flourishing and quieter periods. Similarly, it is worth exploring how the colony’s membership changed, how the artists who appeared here only occasionally added color to its daily life, what the colony’s network of connections was like, and through what stages the artists’ colony became part of urban life.
But perhaps most interesting is the theme favored by the artists: the garden, which could be the colony’s stunning park with its ancient trees, or the more secluded, narrower, and more enclosed parts of Szentendre, or even the town itself, which they most often set against a natural backdrop with a wide horizon. Despite their outdated nature, they loved the buildings of the former sanatorium, into which the eight colony founders—József Bánáti Sverák, Miklós Bánovszky, Henrik Heintz, Ernő Jeges, Béla Onódi, Jenő Paizs Goebel, Lajos Pándy, and László Rozgonyi—moved. Over time, these buildings disappeared and were replaced by new ones, but the garden remained, and its atmosphere and unique charm still permeate the walls of the studios today. Artists representing a wide variety of artistic endeavors still work side by side today, but the colony’s past and the legacy of its former artists have created a tradition that is inescapable for everyone. Over the past century, the artists’ colony has not only represented the continuity of art in Szentendre but has also become an integral part of Hungarian art history.