Dezso Czigany

Tétel 25: Czigány Dezső (1883-1938): Dél-francia tájkép, 1934 k. Olaj, vászon, 50 x 61,5 cm J.b.l.: Czigány Változata reprodukálva: Rum Attila: Czigány Dezső (Budapest, 2004), 172. tábla Szerepelt a Műgyűjtők Galériája 14. (1993. novemberi) aukcióján, 152. tétel Velledits Lajos festékvizsgálatával Rum Attila műbírálatával

Tétel 96: Czigány Dezső (1883-1938): Dél-francia tájkép, 1934 k. Olaj, vászon, 50 x 61,5 cm J.b.l.: Czigány Szerepelt a Műgyűjtők Galériája 14. aukcióján (1993. nov.), 152. tétel Változata reprodukálva: Rum Attila: Czigány Dezső (Budapest, 2004), 172. tábla Velledits Lajos festékvizsgálatával Rum Attila szakvéleményével

signed lower left Czigány Paris Czigány and the Gresham Kör (Gresham Circle) After they had lived in Paris for almost five years, Czigány and his family moved back to Budapest in 1930. Right before his coming home, in January 1931, he displayed a considerable collection of pictures at the exhibition of the Képzomuvészek Uj Társasága (New Association of Artists). It was Róbert Berény who mostly helped Czigány to re-adapt into Hungarian art life; he introduced him to artist, critics and collectors, the members of the later Gresham-kör. One of the art dealers exhibited Czigány's pictures in a collective exhibition in 1934. The members of the Gresham Kör were holding exhibitions together with Czigány throughout the 1930s and they also worked together in Zebegény. This little town on the bank of the Danube became more and more popular among the artist in those years. Though Czigány was not a member of the Gresham-kör, he had much in common with its artists: after the suppression of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, they developed a behaviour free of politics and they were disappointed of the avantgarde which they had thought to be strong enough to re-shape society. Czigány's landscape painting in the 1930s In the land- and cityscapes of Czigány made between 1925-30 in South France, - above all, comparing them to the painter's earlier works- one can recognise a low-keyed, settled and crystal clear world. In this era, Czigány was closely related to the tendency of New Objectivity; his pictures from those years are very much akin to those of the German Alexander Kanoldt and the French Auguste Herbin. This perspicuity and order was replaced by a landscape painting whose forms shaped by bendable lines made the pictures more vivid and energetic. The presentment remained simple but the strengthening contrast of colours filled up the pictures with dramatic dynamics. When Czigány returned from Paris, he moved into the flat of his former master, Károly Ferenczy. Ferenczy 's figure was defining not only for Czigány, but also for the members of the Gresham-kör. Czigány's pictures made in Zebegény and Csopak also evoke the lyric inwardness and the harmonic order of forms which is so characteristic of Ferenczy's pictures. As for the presentment, the Landscape Outskirts of Paris is similar to the pictures that show Ferency's effect. However, the composition of the picture is quite unusual in Czigány's oeuvre. He divided the chosen part of the landscape from its reflection by a horizontal that precisely halves the picture-plane. Taking into the consideration that this doubled representation opened a door for contrasting two totally different ways of representation, this picture can be taken as a 'key picture'. The real landscape, that was constructed with a cool objectivity, is opposed to its rhythmically unbound, stain-like reflection; this contrast also represents the contrast between New Objectivity and the post-impressionism of Nagybánya. It also symbolises Czigány's path of art that started from Nagybánya and returned to the traditions of post-Nagybánya painting.

signed lower left Czigány In the first two months of 1844 eighty-six painting s could be seen at Dezso Czigány exhibition of his heritage. Czigány left Róbert Berény, the friend and colleague, a letter of farewell at the tragic night of New Year's Eve in 1937. He asked Berény to destroy all his paintings save the self-portraits. Berény could not do it. The relatives decided the same way as well, they considered the letter only as a result of the deranged mind. Being war-time, it was not easy to arrange this exhibition. Consequently it could not show the complete oeuvre. Nevertheless, it gives a cross-section of a life's work. The painting "Girl in a white dress" was not exhibited then, but some analogous paintings which were, prove that although Czigány mostly painted still lives, landscapes and portraits, the topic of the figural composition was a challenge for him. It is further proved by the fact, that a picture "Girl" (Lot No. 647.) was exhibited at the Art Hall in 1930/31 which could a swell be the same as this oil painting in question. "The girl in a white dress" must have been painted in the first years of the century. Czigány worked in Nagybánya from 1900. Although the effect of pre-raffaelites and Maurice Denis could be traced here, we cannot be sure how well Czigány knew his contemporaries, or earlier foreign artistic movements. But we can be certain, that he worked besides Károly Ferenczy in Nagybánya. Ferenczy's influence is the major one, though his master was Simon Hollósy there. Nagybánya and Ferenczy (and this painting as well) played a very important role in the path which eventually led to the "Nyolcak" artists' society and to the accomplishment of his art. Valéria Majoros, art historian - a summary

signed lower right Czigány The Hungarian audience could see Dezso Czigány's paintings of Provence, Southern France from 1927 on. The first occasion was in Aladár Székely's Váci street saloon. "The sunny countryside of the South, the nostalgic blue of its sea, all the beauty which is offered to the man from the North has apparently cheered up the mood of this melancholic artist." wrote Artúr Elek in his review after this exhibition. In 1930 at the KUT exhibition, apart from two still lives, only Provence landscapes were exhibited. These compositionally closed-structured landscapes remind us of Cézanne, and they are undoubtedly signioficant works of art in Czigány's oeuvre.