The 3rd National Exhibition of Roma Artists 2000
In.: DARÓCZI Ágnes— KALLA Éva— KERÉKGYÁRTÓ István (Szerk.): Roma képzőművészek III. Országos Kiállítása. The 3rd National Exhibition of Roma Artists 2000 Magyar Művelődési Intézet, Budapest, 2000. 64 p., ill. (katalógus)
Ágnes Daróczi
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EXHIBITION
We began organising the first Romany fine arts exhibition more than twenty years ago. In May 1979, and ten years later, we entitled the shows First (or Second) "National Fine Arts Exhibition of Self-Taught Romany Artists".
The forthcoming Third National Romany Fine Arts Exhibition is a natural continuation of the first two. The questions may arise: Why has the title been changed and what has happened over the past twenty years? By the time you read this Introduction, you will find answers to these questions. In the meantime, suffice it to say that over the past twenty years we have been witnessing the Romany people come to their cultural and political consciousness in Hungary.
Let us start remembering the difficulties we met in the beginning. At the end of the 1970s, when Romanies were not a recognised minority and did not have institutions or organisations of their own yet, it was very difficult to organise such a fine arts exhibition. Gifted as the Romany painters and wood-carvers concerned were, they were little known. We sought to attract to them not less than national, in fact, international attention. The authorities did not like what we did and called it "nationalist scheming".
We wished to change the way the public saw Romanies, to free them from old stigmas. Friends advised us to entitle the show "Roma Naive Painters". But the word "naive" would have been misleading, we thought, as some of the artists concerned were not naive at all and those who were, differed from the traditional peasant artists. That is why we settled for the term: "self-taught" because that was true of them all. Those Romany artists were so committed and persevering that neither poverty, nor their unhelpful families could dissuade them from carrying on.
Let me recall the first unstable steps. In summer 1974 my husband and I set out to find János Balázs, a painter whose works had already been known in several countries of Europe. In the railway station of the town of Salgótarján we turned to the first Romany man we met and asked him about the whereabouts of the elderly artist, who had lived on his own. "How come that visitors only ask about Uncle János? Why do you think he is the only painter in our community?" - came the indignant answer. That is how we were introduced to András Balogh Balázs. It was sheer plea-sure to see his colourful pictures that showed the hill of Pécskő. And then we met another person we never heard of before: Jolán Oláh - who painted superb portraits on paper she had secretly taken from her children and used paint that her husband left. She showed us her genuinely naive pictures. Those experiences encouraged me to embark on organising the exhibition. In 1978, upon graduating from university, I was admitted to the staff of the Institute of Popular Culture, which is today called Hungarian Institute of Public Culture. If a small town like Salgótarján has as many as three painters - thought - the country as a whole must have numerous unknown or little known artists. It seemed to me a wonderful idea to find them and show their works to the general public.
The warm reception of the works of János Balázs and Tamás Péli, the latter just back from The Netherlands, eloquently showed that the fine arts offered a viable road for self-fulfilment for the Romanies.
Until the early 1970s the Hungarian public associated Romany culture with the Gypsy music of restaurants and the songs they heard on trains that carried so many Romany commuters.
It was a breakthrough when the poems of a 17-year-old Romany lad, Károly Bari, were first published. His poems acquainted the readers with the exclusion and humiliation of Romanies. Soon after that the works of other Romany authors came out: novels by Menyhért Lakatos, translations and Hungarian language poems by József Choli Daróczi, poems by Béla Osztojkán, Attila Balogh and Gyula Horváth, and novels József Holdosi.
For us, members of a small group of Romany intellectuals, the obvious aim was to attract attention to Romany works of art also at the level of elite culture. It was with that mission in mind that we set out for an exploratory tour. We got tips from adult educators, art historians and painters. Our team consisted of the painter Tamás Péli, the writer Menyhért Lakatos, minority researcher János Bársony and myself. It would be unjust not to mention the assistance we got from staff members of the Institute of Popular Culture. Zsigmond Karsai, himself a painter and a staffer of the Institute, also came along. He arranged the first exhibition. The following persons were instrumental in finding the artists and selecting the exhibits: Oszkár Papp, Noméi Tamás, Attila Joláthy, Pál Bánszki, Magda Koltai, Júlia Puskásné Oláh, Éva Kalla, Katalin Sári and Zsuzsa Bódi. We express our gratitude to them and to all those people who make it possible for Romany artists to exhibit their works in culture centres and exhibition halls.
The works of twelve artists were shown in the first exhibition. The event was well received. Though the gallery of the Pataky culture centre was in the outskirts of Budapest, people flocked to see the show in May 1979.
Within a year 35 group exhibitions and one-man shows were mounted across Hungary. People from home and abroad, including the Ethnographic Museum of Frankfurt-am-Main, purchased exhibits. The journalist Sándor Dutka decided to specialise in the collection of works by Romany artists.
Perhaps Teréz Orsós received more praise than any other exhibitors. The volume "Gypsy Lullaby" carried her illustrations, and when the Bible was translated into the Romany language, she was among the illustrators. In 1980 she became a member of the Arts Fund. (The minority policy of Baranya County has been exemplary. In the early 1980s a permanent exhibition of works by Romany artists who were born in Baranya County were organised at Luzsok in an ethnographically valuable house. Today that collection can be
found in the Aladár Rácz Romany community house. The establishment of the Aladár Rácz community house is another fine achievement of Baranya County. Pécs, the seat of that county, is the venue of Hungary's only Romany secondary school, the six-year Gandhi School. At Mánfa there is a boarding school for gifted secondary school students.)
Even though the exhibition brought praises from many parts of the country and some works were bought, that did not brought noteworthy material gains for the artists. The Hungarian State did not buy any works despite our request. Neither did it commission new work or confer decorations on the artists. The State did not establish a Romany museum either. That, by the way, is still the case: Hungary's most populous minority does not have a museum of its own.
Probably in response to the success of the first exhibition, the second could be held in the Museum of Ethnography in the heart of Budapest. The date was spring 1989. Hungary was in a euphoric mood of transition to multi-party democracy. We then thought the opportunity to hold the exhibition in that prestigious museum signalled the advent of a new era, that of solidarity and an end to Romany humiliation.
It was a major event including, alongside the second national exhibition of self-taught Romany artists, ethnographic and photographic side shows. The Museum of Ethnography threw its full weight behind the effort to improve the public perception of Romanies. The exhibitions coincided with the top tourist season, and the ethnographic show was open until the end of the year, so that groups of schoolchildren could also see it. It is a question that nobody can answer whether those exhibitions helped change the outlook of the visitors, young and old. Yet it is certain: the Romany young people who saw them learned a lot about their people's art and past and were impressed by seeing pictures that portrayed Romanies.
Works by nearly all the artists involved in the 1979 exhibition were present at the second show. It indicated that our selection criteria stood the test of time. The new artists involved were not all young. Think for instance of Gábor Dilinkó , who used to be an army officer during the 1956 revolution and who was rewarded for his services after 1990. Today he is a retired brigadier general. It was before the second show that we met wood-carver Kálmán Szomora and painter Gyöngyi Ráczné Kalányos, who returned to painting following promising attempts in her years of youth.
The state financing of culture had undergone fundamental changes by 1989.The exhibition could not have taken place following the withdrawal of the State from that area, had it not for the generous assistance of private sponsors. Thanks to the help of the Soros Foundation and other donors, a bilingual colour catalogue could be produced in five thousand copies and a modest sum could be spent to purchase some of the paintings and carvings. Those works of art could one day form the basis of the much-wanted museum
of Romany art.
After carefully assessing a large number of works of art, the experts of the Hungarian Institute of Public Culture approved the purchase of a piece each made by András Balogh Balázs, Márta Bada, Jakab Orsós, Károly Pongor Beri, József Fenyvesi, Jolán Oláh, Teréz Orsós, Gyöngyi Ráczné Kalányos, Gábor Dilinkó, Ödön Gyügyi, Magda Szécsi and Kálmán Szomora. Since then the collection has been expanded with works of arts created during summer "camps" of artists.
In the meantime Sándor Dutka, who has a gallery of his own, has sold to the Hungarian Institute of Public Culture 34 paintings by János Balázs and 11 by Károly Pongor Beri at a token price. Sándor Dutka included in the sales contract his request that those works should eventually be put on display in the museum of Romany art, yet to be set up. In the early 1990s the Ministry of Culture took a small but commendable step: it purchased works by István Szentandrássy inspired by writings of Lorca. According to the sales contract, those works are also meant to be exhibited in the future museum of Romany art.
As a consequence of the second exhibition, the Museum of Ethnography and the Romany Social and Cultural Centre of the Capital City (Romano Kher) began systematic purchases of works of art by Romany artists.
That is the present state of affairs: there is a modest yet impressive collection, but the museum has yet to be established.
A few days before the 1998 parliamentary elections the National Roma Self-Government - which was set up thanks to the law on national and ethnic minorities - received a culture centre from the Ministry of Culture. (Legally, it is operated as public benefit company.) Politically and from a professional point of view, we do not consider that building (a former culture centre of a factory in the outskirts of Budapest) an ideal choice to house the future Romany Museum.
When preparing for the present show, we visited each of the artists of the previous two exhibitions. They create works of art with the same enthusiasm as before. However, in the absence of an effective mechanism of art promotion and few potential buyers, most of them work very hard to make a living. They are hardly better off than the Romany population at large.
How could this situation be changed for the better?
In my view those Romany artists have done everything in their power - the rest depends on the response of the art-loving public, the impresarios, cultural officials, museum curators and art-loving financiers. Let us hope that many of the visitors will decide to buy the piece they like the most.
It is the plan and desire of the Hungarian Institute of Public Culture and the Romédia Foundation, which have organised the present Third National Romany Fine Arts Exhibition, to set up a permanent exhibition with an arts shop (and a workshop).
May you find pleasure in looking at these works of art. We hope to find sponsors to our next project, tentatively called Romart Salon, where we would be delighted to welcome you back.
Now that multi-party democracy has turned ten in Hungary, we still have not given up the hope to obtain a museum for the works of art of Romanies, Hungary's most populous ethnic minority.
10 June 2000