Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (1853–1919) was born 170 years ago. The anniversary is marked by an exhibition jointly organised by the Museum of Fine Arts–Hungarian National Gallery and the Janus Pannonius Museum of Pécs. The exhibition parading forty-five works pays tribute to one of the most original and best-known artists in the history of Hungarian painting. The exhibitionprovides a complete overview of the main themes and motives in Csontváry’s art as well as of his life.

One of the most important concepts forming Csontváry’s views on art is that of “living nature”. It is known from his autobiography that during his childhood he lived in close proximity with nature and was keen to understand natural phenomena. Living nature, albeit in different forms, can be found in all of his pictures.

Csontváry was under the spell of the immense scale of the dimensions of time and space: thousand-year-old cedars, colossal sizes, mountains, and cascades. He was driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge: he wanted to see and understand everything that the world had to show him. He was captivated by the High Tatras from a young age and had been cherishing the plan of his great painting of the Tatra Mountains for a long time. His travels were also inspired by his search for the “great motif”. 

In recent decades, numerous monographs and studies enriched our knowledge on the legendary painter. Whether we approach these works with pure reason or the passion fed by the Csontváry cult, in the end we are bound to conclude that his painting is unmatched in the entire history of Hungarian art. No matter how his art is interpreted, it is certain that Csontváry is the most original Hungarian painter. He always remained free from established styles and schools, while his peculiar life, his visionary calling, and the virtually miraculous survival of his oeuvre all contributed to the myth that developed around his person. Csontváry was a child of the turn of the century, in whose life’s work the universal individualism of romanticism is inimitably merged with the modernist quest for collective ideals.

The exhibition can be viewed until 16 July 2023.

https://www.mfab.hu/exhibitions/csontvary-170/