TOWERS, FACES, MASKS – THE ART OF LAJOS VAJDA (1908–1941)

Lajos Vajda (1908–1941) was an outstanding figure of 20 th century Hungarian art, whose unique and unparalleled pictorial world is inseparable from the town of Szentendre. However, his work is not the most easily accessible: he took paths that, in the words of Ernő Kállai, one of his astute critics, ‘few in our parts would venture on’ (1943). Though the literature devoted to his career, which unfolded in the course of less than fifteen years—the analyses and studies produced in the eighty-four years since his death—could fill a library, not all aspects of his artistic outlook have been puzzled out. The vatic sensitivity and highly intellectual perspective with which he responded to the phenomena of the ambivalent era he lived in have lost none of their timeliness, force and authenticity. In fact, the deep drama and universal calligraphy of his last charcoal drawings seem to point towards us, towards the future. In the exhibition entitled Towers, Faces, Masks, visitors can discover the chronological development of Lajos Vajda’s unique oeuvre, from his early studies, through the transparent drawings, to the large charcoal drawings that mark the end of his life’s work. The exhibition is complemented with a history of the Vajda Museum, an account of our thrilling investigation into Haluskai’s farm, and Vajda: Between Worlds, Dániel Horváth and Gábor Gerhes’s video installation from 2018, which introduces the viewer to the artist’s visual thinking with spectacular solutions. The figure, personality and artistic beliefs of Lajos Vajda are conjured up at the exhibition by the texts of his contemporaries.