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 story, but very little told," reminds Alex Nyerges, Administrator and Executive Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). "As one of the top ten art museums in the country, the institution is well positioned, and indeed called, to help lead the way in telling it." These are the words that define this interesting exhibition, organized in collaboration with Károly Kincses, director and founder of the Hungarian Museum of Photography. It sheds light on a missing chapter in art history, examining the "geographical reach and considerable influence" these Hungarian-American artists had on twentieth-century photography.

PROMINENT FIGURES

This collection of over 170 works focuses in particular on the impact of these creators in urban centers such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Above all, the photographic corpus shows how these interwar emigrants, many of whom had to flee and change their surnames, explored their new country. The museum space features a number of key works, from André de Dienes (Andor György
Ikafalvi-Dienes) and his portraits of film icons such as Marilyn Monroe, who fueled Hollywood's golden age, to Robert Capa (Endre Ernö Friedmann), pioneer of modern photojournalism, and 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 the leisure scenes in Central Park and at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair. And in equal measure, that of György Kepes, reflecting the modernity of the 1950s and 1960s, and László Moholy-Nagy (László Weisz), whose New Bauhaus influenced the development of Chicago as an incubator for design, art and photography. Two other notable representatives of this fine selection are Martin Munkácsi (Márton Mermelstein), for his fashion and advertising photography, and André Kertész (Andor Kertész), for his New York shots. At the end of his life, the latter
photographed the city with Polaroids from the window of his apartment overlooking Washington Square.

RICH ARTISTIC CREATION

The vision of all these photographers contributed greatly to the development and growth of modern photography in the United States. Some were able to introduce 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 scope and impact", recalls the museum director. Indeed, there are other great names beyond the photographic medium, such as Paramount co-founder Adolph Zukor, composer Béla Bartók, award-winning director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), architect and designer Marcel Breuer, and the precursor 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