It was in 1951 that the collection’s first pieces were added to the material of the then newly established Károly Ferenczy Museum. The accumulation of works has continued up to today in several waves, until the present concept was created, which is more dynamic, with a broader perspective than before, but at the same time giving priority to artists active in the town and its vicinity.

The present exhibition intends to delineate the focal points and directions of this collection of almost 10 thousand pieces, ranging from the original founders of the Szentendre artists’ colony to today’s colony to the contemporary artists working and creating art in the town.

The selection, representing a collection which on a national scale is regarded as bulky, emphatically features well-known schools such as the Nagybánya one, and having seceded from them, the Neos, also the Eight, the European School, the Hungarian section of the École de Paris, the modern abstract school of the sixties, the constructivist efforts, surrealism, and Dada as well as the Neo-avantgarde and fresher versions of these, which have become known simply as “Szentendre art”.

The material presented highlights from the collection some works which are exceptional even in the history of Hungarian art and the similarly exceptional artists who have bequeathed their life-work to us, emphasizing, as a chamber show, the emblematic and exemplary works of Lajos Vajda, Endre Bálint, Dezső Korniss, Margit Anna and Imre Ámos, and the painterly legacies of Jenő Barcsay, Béla Czóbel, and János Kmetty, which have influenced several generations.

In the selection there is special emphasis on the material from Lajos Vajda Studio and the contemporary Szentendre artists (among others, Pál Deim, Péter Bereznai, István efZámbó, László feLugossy, Rudolf Pacsika, Ottó Vincze, and András Wahorn), which may be viewed on the topmost floor of MODEM, in a special section.

Venue: MODEM -  Centre for Modern and Contemporary Art Debrecen
Address: Debrecen,  Baltazár Dezso tér 1.