The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is exhibiting the work of some thirty American artists of Hungarian origin who revolutionized the photographic language of the 20th century.

“The photography of Hungarian-born Americans is an important but little-told story,” notes Alex Nyerges, Trustee and Executive Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). “As one of the country’s top ten art museums, the institution is well-positioned, indeed called upon, to help pave the way by telling it.” This is how this compelling exhibition, organized in collaboration with Károly Kincses, Director and Founder of the Hungarian Museum of Photography, defines itself. It sheds light on a missing chapter in art history, examining the “geographical reach and considerable influence” these Hungarian-American artists had on 20th-century photography.

ELEGANT FIGURES

This collection of over 170 works focuses particularly on the impact of these artists in urban centers such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. This photographic corpus primarily shows how these interwar emigrants, many of whom had to flee and change their surnames, explored their new country. The museum space thus houses key pieces, including those by André de Dienes (Andor György
Ikafalvi-Dienes) and his portraits of film icons like Marilyn Monroe, who fueled Hollywood's golden age, Robert Capa (Endre Ernö Friedmann), a pioneer of modern photojournalism, or László Kondor, who documented the Vietnam War and social injustice in America.

The exhibition also highlights the work of tailor and photographer John Albok (János Albók) on leisure scenes in Central Park and at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair. Equally prominent is the work of György Kepes, reflecting the modernity of the 1950s and 1960s, and of László Moholy-Nagy (László Weisz), whose New Bauhaus influenced Chicago's development as an incubator for design, art, and photography. Two other notable figures in this fine selection deserve mention: Martin Munkácsi (Márton Mermelstein), for his fashion and advertising photographs, and André Kertész (Andor Kertész), for his images of New York. Toward the end of his life, the latter
photographed the city with a Polaroid camera from his apartment window overlooking Washington Square.

RICH ARTISTIC CREATION

Their collective vision greatly contributed to the development and rise of modern photography in the United States. Some introduced radical and experimental techniques, while others created revolutionary and innovative approaches in their respective fields.
“The wealth of intellectual and artistic talent that left Hungary between the end of the First World War and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 is almost unprecedented in terms of its scope and impact,” the museum director points out. Indeed, there are other big names beyond the medium of photography, such as Paramount co-founder Adolph Zukor, composer Béla Bartók, award-winning director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), architect and designer Marcel Breuer, and pioneer of investigative journalism Joseph Pulitzer.

« AMERICAN, BORN HUNGARY: KERTÉSZ, CAPA, AND THE HUNGARIAN
AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHIC LEGACY »
VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS (VMFA)
200 N. ARTHUR ASHE BLVD, RICHMOND (USA)
UNTIL JANUARY 26, 2025
VMFA.MUSEUM