The exhibition shows a retrospective of some 150 works by Aba-Novák, who died in 1941. It takes its name - The Barbarian Genius - from Picasso's exclamation after seeing Aba-Novák's works at the 1937 Paris Exhibition: "Who is that barbarian genius:?"
The exhibition includes Aba-Novák's renderings of the circus and his works from his time in Rome, as well as summers spent working with the Nagybánya School in Romania. The paintings are on loan from some 50 private collectors as well as public collections in Hungary, Rome, Riga, Kaunas (Lithuania) and Nové Zámky (Slovakia). Also being shown is a digitalized film of Aba-Novák during a trip to New York in 1935.
Aba-Novák (1894-1941) is one of Hungary greatest modern painters. Among his favourite themes was the circus and local markets, but he also painted frescos on the wall of the Saint Dmitri church in Szeged and in the Roman Catholic church of Jászszentandrás. He was awarded a gold medal at the Padua Church Art Exhibition. He also won top prizes at the 1937 Paris Exhibition and the Venice Biennale in 1940.
Photo: hung-art.hu
