Flay will open an exhibition of works of artists represented by four Hungarian galleries. Labourdette will open a show of works by members of the European School, a short-lived but influential art movement in Hungary.
The Hungarian Institute in Paris opened the Vasarely Gallery in November 2008 with the aim of bringing Hungary's modern art from the 20th century and contemporary art from the 21st century closer to the French public. An exhibition earlier hosted by the gallery entitled Modernism, Activism, Bauhaus - Constructive Tendencies in Hungarian Art 1910-1930 was well received, and exhibitions of work by Victor Vasarely, Béla Kondor and Júlia Vajda each drew several thousand visitors. The latest exhibition, a selection of work by members of the European School, was put together by the curator Marianna Kolozsváry from the Hungarian National Museum.
The artists of the European School reacted to history, to the horrors of WWII, with their own system of symbols. The movement's members aimed to bring Hungarian painting and sculpture out of its insular world and onto the international art scene. Not only artists, but writers, journalists and even doctors joined the group in October 1945 to build bridges between Hungary and the art of Western Europe. The European School was largely inspired by the Ecole de Paris movement in France, and members of the two schools even organised a joint Hungarian-French exhibition featuring works by Bonnard, Picasso, Maillol and Matisse.
The European School broke up in 1948 after the collapse of democracy in Hungary, and many of its members emigrated to other countries, said deputy director of the Hungarian Institute in Paris Csaba Varga. Many of the artists' works ended up in private collections, he added.
The exhibition of the European School at the Hungarian Institute in Paris will run from October 24 until December 9.
