Jenő Barcsay

Jenő Barcsay ( born January 14, 1900 in Katona / Transylvania, † April 2, 1988 in Szentendre ) was a Hungarian painter, printmaker, draftsman and skilled writer.

Life and work

Barcsay began his career with a piano studies at the Conservatory in 1918 Marosvásárhely. Between 1920 and 1926 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts ( today: Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts) in Budapest with János painting Vaszary and Gyula Rudnay and Graphics at Viktor Olgyai.

A stay in Paris in 1926/27 and Rome 1928/30, which he financed through a scholarship, influenced his style education. From the summer of 1925-1928 Barcsay was active in the artist colony Hódmezővásárhely, and since 1929 in Szentendre and Budapest. From 1931 to 1945 he worked as an art teacher at the professional trade school in Pest. From 1945 to 1974 Barcsay was professor of anatomical drawing at the present Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Since 1966 he has maintained a studio in Szentendre. In Szentendre is to visit the works of the artist as a public exhibition of the collection Barcsay ( Barcsay Gyűjtemény ).

Stylistic development

First Barcsays genre pictures that were still influenced by Gyula Rudnays romantisierendem style, are lyrical landscapes of the Great Hungarian Plain.

The Paris experience ( Cézanne ) and Italy with its Renaissance frescoes leave lasting impressions for a clear image structure and a balanced color language. The second stay in Paris with the experience of Picasso, Henri Matisse and Cubism influenced decisively Barcsay future work.

1929 in Szentendre, he combines high-contrast spatial experience of nature and areally -prismatic decorativity ( then first as a charcoal sketch in oil) without denying with constructivist elements, the bond to the realism of the lowland painter and the dark, textured landscapes István Nagy. Unsuccessful attempts are for the time being, in figurative. To combine constructivist representation and expressive visual elements ( eg three working-class girls, 1938, 200 x 135 cm, Picture of Barcsay destroyed).

In the late 1930s found in Barcsay a move to the grim - excited nature romanticism, primarily in still life and nocturnal visionary street scenes in which people appear only as distance figures (eg white lights, pastel / Tempera, 1944).

After 1945 Barcsay was a leading proponent of the constructivist direction of the Hungarian European School, which continues its efforts to free art despite government ban the school. With a Malauffassung which was ajar the new ungariscne architecture, Barcsay leads the constructiveness to the limit nonfigurativer painting, for example, in a lattice- structured way of urban landscapes.

At the beginning of the 1960s, his emotive lyricism and the tendency to constructive abstraction go to synthesis: the human longing for community comes in the beauty as disruption of the figurative system and the subtle coloration to wear (mosaic design women I, in front of a golden background, oil / wood, 1963).

The late work will, however, form and color greatly reduced in color to express the basic questions of human existence generally valid ( eg idea and misdemeanors, oil, 1973, part of a triptych ). As a legacy of the Hungarian avant-garde, he developed from his close association with Szentendre an independent natural Neoconstructivism, the European Modern enriched decisive in his life met materiality and compactness. Barcsay achieved also with its translated into many languages, art books international recognition. His most famous Buchveröffentltlichungen is probably a band images of the anatomy drawing " Művészeti Anatomia " which was published at the Corvin Publisher 1967, and as a standard reference for art students today has validity.

Exhibited Works (excerpt)

• Baja: I.Türr Museum
• Budapest: National Gallery: numerous drawings and paintings, including hills, oil, 1934; White lights, 1944; Factory, oil / canvas, 1946.; Image construction ( Blue variations), Oil / canvas, 1966.; In the box, oil / canvas, 1969 - National Theatre: Marble Mosaic, 1966 - Historical Museum: brown head, oil / canvas, 1960;. .. . Mosaic design for Szentendre, 1968 - Újpest, swimming pool. Mosaic 1974 / 75th - Rákoskeresztúr, registry office: Mosaic wall.
• Debrecen: Deri Museum
• Kaposvar: Jozsef Rippl- Ronai Museum: Working, end 20er/Anfang 30s.
• Kecskemét Gallery: inter alia estate.
• London: British Museum
• Miskolc: University of Technology, Library: Women, marble mosaic, 1963.
• Nagykanissza: G.Thury Museum - Image Gallery
• Pécs: Modern gallery: landscapes and numerous local views of Szentendre; Mosaic sketch ( women ), oil, 1968; Triptych I -III, oil, 1979.
• Szeged: F.Móra Museum: Escape, oil.
• Székesfehérvár: City Museum and Others rhythm of forms, oil, 1971.
• Szentendre: J.Barcsay Museum: permanent exhibition, about 150 paintings, 70 prints, designs for frescoes, mosaics, carpets, estate. - K.Ferenczy Museum: working-class girls, oil, 1928 - House of Culture. Mosaic, 1973-75.
• Várpalota: Gy.Nagy Gallery

Exhibitions (selection)

Group exhibitions (selection)

Bibliographisches Eigenwerk

• Szükségem van a természetre (I need nature ), in: Az új magyar művészet önarcképe, Budapest, 1946 32
• Ember és drapéria ( man and drapery ), Budapest, 1958
• És Forma tér (shape and space ), Budapest, 1966
• Művészeti Anatomia, Budapest, 1967

Bibliography (selection)

• Vo5, 1961.
• MuevLex I, 1965.
• MuevÉlet 1985.
• LdK I, 1987.
• MagyFestAdat, 1988.
• Who's who in the socialist countries of Europe, I, M. 1989 -. I.Genthon, Barcsay Jeno Művészettörténeti Értesitő 7:1958 ( 2) 104-115.
• Ibid., Acta historiae artium 9:1963, 371-392.
• László Gy. Barcsay, Bp 1963.
• Németh, L.: Modern Hungarian Art, Budapest, 1969.
• Petényi, K.: Barcsay Jeno, Budapest, 1974.
• László Gy. Művészet 15:1974 ( 2), 3-29.
• Bojár, I.: Barcsay Jeno Szentendrei mozaikja, Budapest, 1975.
• Körner, E.: Szentendre - differenciált egység, Budapest, 1976, 6-9? .
• Czapó, G.: Művészek, műhelyek, Budapest, 1979, 15-18 ( interview).
• Salamon, N.: Művészet 25:1984 (10 ) 36
• Kontha, S. ( Ed. ): Magyar művészet 1919-1945, I, Budapest, 1985.
• Petényi, K.: Barcsay Jeno, Budapest, 1986.
• Fire, G.: Művészet 28:1987 (10 ) 50
• Loska, I.: Művészet 29:1988 ( 5) 51, 55
• Nagy, Z.: Művészet (9 ) 20-27.
• Sík, C.: Művészet 31:1990 ( 2) 25