Kálmán Makláry Alfréd Réth, Cubiste Extraordinaire

K á lm á n M a k lá r y A lfré d R éth , C u b is te E x tr a o r d in a ir e " A fte r E ighty-O ne Years, Hungary's First Cubist A rtist Has Come H om e" w as M typical o f the m edia's response to the tw o retrospectives on Alfréd Réth (1884-1966) organised sim ultaneously at the Budapest G allery and the French In stitu te in Budapest in the Autum n o f 2003. Earlier, in February 2003, the H ungarian In s titu te in Paris presented the Cubist and the "m etaphysical-C ubist" w o rk s he produced between 1911 and 1928. Réth's w o rk s are in the Musée N ational d ’A rt Moderne, at the Pom pidou Centre in Paris, in the Musée d ’A rt M oderne de la Ville de Paris; the Musée d'A rt M oderne, Grenoble; the Musée Géo-Charles, Echirolles; the Petit Palais in Geneva, Switzerland; the New Y ork M e tro p o lita n Museum; and several o th e r public and private co lle ction s in Western Europe. S ta rtin g o u t - Nagybánya lfréd Réth (originally Roth) was born in to a m iddle-class fam ily on February 29, A , 1884 in Budapest. His father, w ho had eight children to support, w orked as a fam ily practitioner. (His patients included the painter Baron László Mednyánszky.) He w anted his son to becom e a bank official, but Réth, w h o had his heart set on a different career, rebelled. Mednyánszky and the p u b lish e r József W olfner to o k h im under th e ir wings: on discovering the young m an's talents, they encouraged h im to p a in t and also in tro du ce d him to O riental and B u d d h ist philosophy. The sum m er o f 1903 found the nineteen-year-old Réth w o rk in g at the Nagybánya artists co lo n y ("H ungary's Barbizon"), w here m odern H ungarian painting w a s in Kálmán Makláry, n o w based in Paris and in Budapest, launched M aklary A rtw o rks in 2002 to prom ote exhibitions and the p u b lish in g o f books on artists whose w o rk needs a reappraisal. He is co -auth or o f Alfred Reth: From Cubism to Abstraction (M akla ry Artw orks 2003) 99 A rt the m aking. Here Réth jo in e d a movement w h ic h was determ ined to "resu rrect" Hungarian painting. Encouraged by the new s o f w hat was happening in Paris, members o f the group w e re all set fo r a co n fro n ta tio n w ith the s p irit o f Academ icism . Sensing th a t he ought n ot to re ly on second and th ird -h a n d in fo r­ m ation, Réth was resolved to see the Parisian developments fo r him self. Upon his return, and w ith his fa m ily 's support (although his father s till opposed his plans), he set off, first to Paris and then to Italy to stud y the art o f the Renaissance masters "at the cradle o f p a in tin g ." During the e ig h t m onths he was away, he to o k the o p p o rtu n ity to attend the Academy o f Fine A rts in Florence. In the a u tu m n o f 1904, on his w a y home, Réth stopped over in Paris to see the sec­ ond Salon d'Autom ne. It w as on this occasion that he saw th irty -tw o o f Cézanne's paintings all in one room, an experience that le ft a deep m ark on him . Réth w as back at the Nagybánya artists' co lo n y again fo r the sum m er o f 1905, but his in s tin c ts told him th a t i f he wanted to live freely and fu lfill his pote ntia ls as a painter, he had no alternative but to take up residence in Paris: "W ith a few exceptions, the entire generation o f artists gravitates to P aris."1 W ith the su pp o rt o f the p ro m in e n t art critic K ároly Lyka and the painter Mednyánszky, he set o u t fo r the c ity o f his dreams in the w inter o f 1905. The painter József Egry m entions this jo u rn e y in his m em oirs: "I left fo r Paris at the end o f 1905. In Vienna I met Roth, w h o was also o n his way to Paris. We spent one day in Vienna. We w ent to see the museums. On the way to Paris we had a very pleasant journey, enjoying the w in te r m agic o f Switzerland. (...) We arrived in Paris at night. (...) The fo llo w in g day we m oved in to a furnished fla t in the a ttic o f a b uild in g by the Seine; w e to o k it over fro m a Hungarian, som e kin d o f a fur-dresser, w hose ad­ dress w e had been given. The next day we e n ro lle d in the Julian.2 M ontparnasse s Egry said, they enrolled in the Julian Academy on th e ir firs t day in Paris. A Nevertheless, the nam e Réth/Roth is n o t m entioned anyw here in a b o o k3 on the academy, w h ich comes com plete w ith a lis t o f all the students w h o attended it, fea tu rin g m ore than a hund re d Hungarian names, in clu d in g Egry's. In 1906 Réth switched to the Delécluse Academy, as attested by Jean B uhot (1885-1952), w ith w h o m Réth established a life -lo n g frie n d sh ip . This is w h a t Buhot has to say in the m e m o irs he addressed to his daughter Héléne: In 1905/1906 I left the Julian Academy and attended the Delécluse Academy at the co r­ ner o f rue Notre Dame des Champs and rue René Pailine. Several Hungarians were among the students; this was where I met Réth, along w ith Joachim, M ikola and Deutsch, as well as Brum mer who was even poorer than the rest o f them. The latter was eventually to become an influential cosm opolitan antique dealer in New York. I cannot understand how they survived and how they actually made ends meet. Réth was rather w e ll-o ff by their standards and he on ly had 70 francs a m onth. Living in an 100 The H u ng aria n Q u a rte rly unsightly little hotel on rue Guénégaud, he invited his undernourished com patriots for a h o t chocolate once a week... All the Hungarians (not all o f whom were Jews) were very nice and everybody liked them. They responded neither to the advice o f the mas­ ters nor to the art movements that the French students were keen to follow : in fact, it was they who gave us ideas... Each o f the Hungarians worked very hard, although th e ir method seemed rather odd to Ernest Laurnet. Their easel was set up in one cor­ ner o f the studio, and their viewing position in the opposite corner at about 8 further metres away. For a good half an hour they carefully examined the sitter, then walked all the way to the easel and left a tiny charcoal or pencil mark on the blank sheet o f paper. The sheet o f paper was enormous, quite often a piece o f wrapping paper. They did probably the best w ork in the studio and in the long term 1, too, learned a great deal from them.4 (...) On entering the room, the first person 1 noticed was Réth, who was delighted to see me. He produced some veiy fine drawings at the time. ...Later on Bató and two other Hungarians joined us... H in d u ism and K hm er art n the stylistic ferm ent tha t was then Paris, several young Hungarian artists (Béla ICzóbel, Róbert Berény, Ödön M á rffy and Sándor Ziffer, to name but a few o f the b est-know n) showed a m arked p a rtia lity for the Fauvists, w h o looked up to M atisse as their leader. Csaba V ilm os Perlrott, Valéria Dénes, Sándor G alim berti and Géza Bornemissza studied d ire ctly under Matisse. Réth h im se lf was not in ­ spired by this style, regardless o f his close friendship w ith the G alim bertis. His in ­ sp ira tio n came fro m Cézanne: his w o rk s at the tim e reveal a strikin g analogy w ith Cézanne’s Arcadian com positions. Furtherm ore, along w ith Picasso, M odigliani and Brancusi, he felt a strong a ffin ity fo r prim itive art. These last all fell under the spell o f African sculpture, Réth succum bed to the m agnetism o f Khm er and Hindu art. The plasticity and the system o f pro po rtio n th a t characterised his nudes, along w ith the com pact and fu ll form s, all clearly p o in t to the influence o f the A ng ko r masters. It w as Jean B uh o t5 w h o probably called Réth's a tte n tio n to the Musée Guimet, w here he first encountered Japanese p rin ts and Indian and Khmer art. A good m any draw ings in the sketch books found in Réth's bequest were studies o r copies o f Indian and Khm er exhibits in the museum . B uhot introduced Réth to his friends, w h o were all Buddhists, w h ich was very unusual in France at that tim e. Under th e ir influence, Réth became and rem ained a vegetarian for the rest o f his life. Mem bers o f B uhot's circle included the Cubist p a in te r Maurice Esmein, w h o died at a tragically yo un g age, and his g irlfrie n d Suzanne Karpeles, a B ud d hist scholar w h o hailed fro m the East. Réth firs t showed his w o rks in Paris in 1910, w h e n he to o k part in the Salon d 'A uto m n e w ith three co m p ositio n s produced u nd e r the "influ e nce o f Hindu a rt."6 By that tim e Réth's interests and experim ents had already branched out in several directions. Between 1908 and 1910 he created several com positions, in w h ic h n atu ra l objects w ere presented in abstract form . F ollow ing these experi101 A rt m ents, he based the com position o f his pictures exclusively on the re la tion sh ip between lines and planes, w ith o u t reference to any objects, real o r im aginary. These com positions made Réth one o f the pioneers o f abstract art. The C u b is t p e r io d a n d rise to f a m e T he year 1911 is an im p o rta nt date in the h isto ry o f Cubism, the year the Cubists held th e ir first collective show under the aegis o f the Salon des Independants. That was also w hen Zsófia Dénes, an im p o rta n t fig ure o f the peri­ o d ’s lite ra ry and a rt scene, first arrived in Paris. Since her a u n t and uncle, V aléria Dénes and Sándor G alim berti, were staying in Marocco, at the tim e along w ith Matisse, they asked their friend Réth to lo o k afte r th e ir niece. This is how Z sófia Dénes recollects the exhibition: We crossed a few rooms, he was dragging me by my arms and I was whining, because I wanted to stop. The walls were plastered with the works o f Rouault, Matisse, Marquet, Derain, Othon Friesz, Camoin, Dufy and the like—all familiar names to me. "O f course, later you w ill have to come back here and see all these, too: Gustave Moreau's school and the beginnings w ith Cézanne. And the Nabis, who are a kind of prophet, and the Fauves, the Beasts. They had already started to shake the founda­ tions. But I want to make your head swim.” And he dragged me. He dragged me straight to room 41. That room had already gained some notoriety during that spring for being the one where all the Cubists gathered. That was the first time they were presented to the public as a group, as a school and as a movement. Painted on large canvasses and plywood boards, there were the compositions o f Braque, Gleizes, Metzinger, Lhote, Léger, Le Fauconnier, Delaunay and the only woman, Marie Laurencin—and many others. Thirteen artists altogether. Chagall was allocated to this room also, obviously by mistake. And Réth, too. He was the friend who gave me this guided tour. He was fully entitled to be here, since he was a through-and-through Cubist. Alfréd Réth, or Frédi, who dragged me through all those rooms so as to con­ front me with the most revolutionary development o f the Spring of 1911, Cubist paint­ ing. I had already known the word Cubism. That Frédi was a Cubist, I had also ascer­ tained. But to see Cubism, to see the school of painting physically manifested through the pictures hanging on the walls, that was something 1 had not seen and had not even imagined. That room 41 inside the pavilion on the bank o f the river Seine—in 1911— was simply beyond belief, something out of fantasy land for someone from Pest.7 Thus it was th a t in 1911 the Cubists and Réth lite ra lly burst u pon the scene. At the Salon d'A utom ne the Cubist group grew m ore num erous s till w ith the new­ com ers, including the Hungarian József Csáky. At the Salon, Réth's p icture was h u n g between the paintings o f Matisse and Rouault. Next he exhibited at the Jubilee E xhibition o f Nagybánya and then he was in vite d to take p art in an exhibi­ tio n in Berlin. It w as probably there th a t Herw arth W alden first had the o p p o rtu ­ n ity to lo o k at Réth's paintings, altho u gh the possibility cannot be excluded that a 102 The H u n g a ria n Q u a rte rly com m on friend, the poet Ludw ig Rubiner, had o rig in a lly called W alden’s atten­ tio n to the H ungarian painter; w hichever was the case, the fact rem ains that in February 1913 Walden asked Réth to represent the new French m ovement, Cubism, in Der Sturm , his ow n gallery. Réth exhibited eig hty o f his com positions; the jo u rn a l D e r S tu rm published Réth's article on Cubism, along w ith his a rtistic credo. By th is time, Réth was considered a m a jo r artist; this was und e rlin e d by the fact th a t the gallery had featured the Delaunays previous to his exhibitio n , and Franz Marc, one o f the founders o f Der Blaue Reiter, after it. That w as when M iklós Rózsa, the d ire ctor o f the Művészház o f Budapest, discovered Réth. It was partly due to Alfréd Réth that in this very tense and intensive period in the art w o rld extensive contacts wére established between Der Sturm and Művészház, in oth ­ er words, between Berlin and Budapest. Artd so have we now come back, through Paris and Berlin, to Budapest, the Művészház. This exhibition took place in April and May, 1913 as the International Post-Impressionist Exhibition, although the title is misleading, as the content pointed far beyond Post-Impressionism. Not only did the Expressionists and Fauvists hang their works next to the compositions o f Hungary's Eights and Cubists, but— according to the evidence o f the catalogue— Kandinsky and Robert Delaunay also showed some o f their abstract paintings. As far as Alfréd Réth was concerned, he had a separate section w ithin the exhibition, featuring thirty-six o f his works. In this way, Hungarian Cubism, which had been born in Paris, found its way back to Budapest— in illustrious international company.8 Thus Réth was set on the way w h ic h made h im an im p o rta n t tw e n tie th -c e n ­ tury painter. The Berthe W eill G allery m ounted an e x h ib itio n o f his p a in tin g s in 1913, the gallery w h ich had been am ongst the firs t to show Braque, Picasso, Léger and Juan Gris. The futu re looked pro m isin g to Réth but u n fo rtu n a te ly only fo r a few m onths. The Great War b roke o u t and, as a H ungarian citizen, he spent the next fo u r and a h a lf years in an in ternm en t camp in the Bretagne. A n e w s ta r t a n d re tu rn to P aris "... a d isillusio n ed , spoiled H ungarian rom antic, w ith m em ories o f p riso n and the loss o f people dear to me fresh in m y mind, I was desperate to fin d new va l­ ues and a new life ."9 This is how T ib o r de Nagy, a m a jo r New York a rt dealer, de­ scribed his feelings after the w ar. Réth must have fe lt som ething sim ila r: a l­ though he returned to Paris after the war, he was n o t able to stay there long. The sh o rt tim e he spent in Paris produced one new and im p o rta n t acquaintance, Géo-Charles; b u t the loss o f the G alim bertis and M aurice Esmein, as w e ll as ill health, com pelled h im to return to Hungary. For a w h ile he was on the road, roam ing Europe and spending some tim e in Salzburg, am ong other places. Once back in Hungary, he tried to make a fresh start in the a rt life here: Béla Fónagy, the d ire c to r o f the e xh ib itio n venue Belvedere, organized a retrospective fo r him 103 A rt in October 1922 and then invited h im to take part in a group e x h ib itio n the fo l­ lo w in g year. B ut Réth found the atm osphere in Budapest too s tiflin g : in his ow n w ords, he was suffocating. Also, he felt that the a ttra ctio n o f Paris grew stronger and stronger. In 1923 he returned. O f this re tu rn an interview p ublished in the Budapest daily E s ti K u r ír has this to say: When I arrived, fo r some reason that 1 cannot explain, I gave my o ld address to the cab driver. You can imagine my surprise, when I got out o f the car in fro n t o f the house on Boulevard Montparnasse, the location o f my dear home that I had given up eight years before: w ith a delighted face and evident joy, the old concierge rushed out to greet me w ith the following words: - Enfin vous voilá, monsieur Réth! At last 1 was here, these were her words, w hich I found rather puzzling. But my astonishm ent grew even further, w hen the old lady led me to the studio and opened the door. Please, go in, she said. And she was the one w ho was amazed that I found this amazing. As it turned out, everything remained there exactly as I had left it eight years ago; they did not touch anything, believing that my absence was only temporary. I was no t even charged rent fo r the period I was away.10 In 1924 the a rt life in Paris had started to liven up again. André Breton pub­ lished his F irs t S u rre a list M a n ife sto and a new wave o f Hungarians w as arriving. This was w hen Brassai, Lancelot Ney, André Kertész, Béla Vörös, Géza Blattner, Árpád Szenes, Etienne Beöthy, Béla Czóbel, Vince Korda, Lajos Tihanyi, Emil Lahner, Csaba P erlrott and his w ife came to Paris, along w ith Réth's childhood friend, the e no rm ou sly talented p a in te r István Farkas and his w ife, Ida Kohner. By then Farkas w as no longer ju s t a friend, but also a relative: Farkas's father, József W olfner, had re-married, ta kin g Réth's sister Jolán as his w ife. A fter 1925, the w orks o f Réth and his com patriots were once again to be seen in the Paris sa­ lo ns. In 1926 the Salon des Independants m ounted a jubilee e x h ib itio n entitled T h irty Years o f Indepe nde nt A rt 1884-1914, in w h ic h Réth show ed six o f his paintings. The w o rk s he produced in that period assumed a "m etaphysical char­ acter," som ew hat sim ilar to the p a in tin g o f the young de Chirico and Carlo Cárrá. In a d d itio n to the faceless figures ä la Malevich, he also added to his pictures m o tifs, icons and signs, w hich he w o u ld develop in to a separate subject in its o w n rig h t years later, in his "découpages." M ost o f the paintings he made in the m id-1920s cam e under the heading o f "m etaphysical Cubism ," a lth o u g h some abstract co m p o sitio n s also emerged. Be gin nin g o f th e n o n -fig u ra tiv e p eriod n 1927 Réth w as finally naturalised in France, w h ich p robably relieved him I from some uncertainty, at the same tim e giving h im a d d itio n al confidence in h is w ork: he rediscovered him self, as evidenced by the in v ita tio n s he received fro m those im p o rta n t galleries w h ic h w o u ld eventually help him resum e the suc104 The H u n g a ria n Q u a rte rly Nudes and Horses, 1908, w atercolour on paper, 72.5 x 91.5 cm. Private collection. Lounging Nude, 1913, watercolour on paper, 96 x 126 cm. Private collection. A lfre d R éth (1 8 8 7 -1 9 6 6 ) Nudes and Horses, 1909, oil on canvas, 54 x 81 cm. Private collection. Bathers, 1911, oil on canvas. The H u n g a ria n Q u a rte rly C ub ist N ude, 1912, o il on canvas, 105 x 75 cm. Private co lle ctio n . A lfre d R élh (1 8 8 7 -1 9 6 6 ) Southern Landscape, 1925, oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm. Private collection. The H u n g a ria n Q u a rte rly Woman w ith Necklace, 1927, o il on canvas, 58 x 46 cm. Private collection. A lfre d R éth (1 8 8 7 -1 9 6 6 ) C o m po sitio n , 1935, o il on canvas, 146 x 97 cm. Private collection. The H u n g a ria n Q u a rte rly H arm ony o f M aterials, 1951, oil on wood, 82 x 61 cm. Private collection. A lfre d R éth (1 8 8 7 -1 9 6 6 ) Persons, 1964, oil on wood, 66 x 102 cm. C om po sitio n , 1950, o il on w oo d, 59 x 130 cm. Private co lle ction . The H u n g a ria n Q u a rte rly cessful career that was disrupted by the war. The o th e r factor th a t pro ba b ly had a bearing on Réth's a rt concerned B erlin 's losing its p o sitio n as the centre o f the in te rn a tio n a l avant-garde to Paris fo r a few years a fte r 1928, w h e n the firs t ab­ stra ct a rt groups, such as Cercle et Carré o r Van Doesburg’s creation, A rt C oncret, w ere established in Paris. Réth sent three o f his w o rks to the e xh ib itio n A r t d 'a u jo rd 'h u i, w h ic h was arranged in 1925 by the Polish painter V ic to r Yanaga P o zn a n ski." This e x h ib itio n prepared the ground fo r the breakthrough, in co n ­ sequence o f w h ich abstract a rt became the d om ina n t trend by the m id d le o f the 1930s. In 1928 the Galerie Henri organized an e x h ib itio n fo r Réth, w h o was next in vite d to show his w o rk s in the Galerie Le Canard Sauvage o f Brussels. Réth received a n o th e r in v ita tio n in 1931, th is tim e to the G alerie de la Renaissance, where a group e xh ib itio n was held u nd e r the title 7e r Salon de 1940. The lis t o f the in vite d artists included, Arp, Beöthy, Czóbel, A lb ert Gleizes, M o n d ria n and Lajos Tihanyi. Réth, w hose last previous association w ith a group, apart fro m the École de Paris, dated fro m his Cubist period, n ow chose to id e n ti­ fy h im s e lf w ith the school kn o w n as A bstraction-C réation. A b stractio n -C réatio n n February 1931 a new art m ovem ent was born o u t o f the débris o f the sh ort­ I lived group Cercle et Carré. Calling itse lf Abstraction-Création: Art n o n -fig u ra tif,12 the g roup held e xhibitio n s w ith the aim o f p opularising abstract art. Alfréd Réth jo in e d the m ovem ent in 1933; he to o k part in the g ro u p ’s exhibitions in 1933 and 1934. The series R h ythm s and Découpage were produced during th is period. For a few years d u rin g the 1930s, Réth was p roducing w o rk s w h ic h were characterised by cu rvin g lines and the in terpla y o f concentric circles and con­ tra s tin g tones. E njoying a freedom he had never before experienced, the artist added fresh colours to his palette, colours that were h ith e rto unseen. M e r the monochrome o f Cubism, the colorful w orld o f the Impressionists, the Fauves and the Orphists opened up for him, and Réth was happy to bow to the pow er o f light and colour. Following in Delaunay's footsteps, he, too, looked upon colour not just as one particular property o f matter, but as a pure element, a pure form and a perfection that needs no com plem ent.13 The d istin ctly isolated colours were n o t m eant to express se nsu a lity o r a n e w fo u n d vivacity. Q uite the contrary: the co lo u rs o f the p a intin g s referred to the theories o f lig h t and colour. They elevated the physical laws above the p ro b ­ lem s o f taste, beauty and aesthetics— in line w ith the painting o f D elaunay and the O rphists. In 1934 and 1935, in co n ju n ctio n w ith the R hythm s, Réth em ­ barked on a series o f new experim ents, w h ich resulted in b rig h tly coloured three -d im e n sio na l pictures, o r D écoupages (Clippings). These painted w o o d con­ stru ction s, w h ich the a rtist liked to refer to as "fo rm e s dans l'e sp a ce " (form s in 105 A rt space), w h ile R oditi called them super-collages, are fu ll o f b rig ht colours, fe a tu r­ in g shifted h a lf discs and fu ll discs and form s analogous w ith Leger's m achine aesthetics. He incorporated all these in to his w o o d panels, the edges o f w h ich coincided w ith the contours o f the painted form s. The same signs and m o tifs o f in d u stria lised u rb an folklore, w h ich had o rig in a lly appeared 'in the p ictures he had made during h is m etaphysical period, reappeared in the co m p o sitio n s co n ­ s titu tin g the series o f "form s in space." In A pril 1935 Réth had a one-m an show in the Galerie Pierre, w h e re his latest w o rk s were show n next to a selection o f his co m p ositio n s from 1912 and 1913. The fact that im m ediately before Réth’s e xhibitio n the gallery show ed Pablo Picasso’s w o rks cle a rly says som ething about Réth’s ow n status. Futherm ore, the Galerie Berthe W eill invited Réth to hold a second e xhibitio n there, w h ich to o k place in 1939. The w a r y e a rs an d R éalités N o u v e lle s isto ry once again interrupted Réth’s career ju s t w hen it began to take o ff H anew; this w as so regardless o f the fact that, in spite o f his Jewish ancestry, he w as able to occupy h im se lf w ith creative w o rk during m ost o f the w a r in C h a n tilly— a ltho u gh in reduced circum stances. Lacking the basic m a te ria ls nec­ essary fo r painting, he started to experim ent w ith m aterials w h ich had rare ly o r n o t at all been used previously in the fine arts. He m ixed powdered coal, cement, slag and chalk p ow der w ith glue, then used a p a in te r's spoon to a pply the m ix ­ tu re to slabs o f concrete— since canvas was also in sh o rt supply. I think that non-figurative art should find its own materials, to be able to express our ideas in a spontaneous fashion, we should abstain from using traditional materials. (...) I wanted to avoid the separation o f colour and material. These two elements are closely bound up in everything that nature offers to our vision. And we all know that paint only allows the im itation o f various materials.14 M o vin g from the découpage o f the 1930s, through the three-d im e n sio na l p ic­ tures made in 1944 o f concrete, he arrived at the series H arm ony o f M aterials, w h ic h reached th e ir high p o in t the 1950s. A part from his Cubist days, the "m o s t visible" period in Réth’s oeuvre— and th e re fo re also the one that was the m o st accessible to critics— w as the tim e w h e n he was associated w ith the group Réalités Nouvelles, w hen he created the series H a rm o n y o f M a te ria ls . The first Salon des Réalités Nouvelles was held in 1939, and then relaunched in 1946, in Paris. Réth to o k part in it in the follow ing year. In 1947 the yo un g Denise René invited her to h er gallery, w here Réth was represented by nine o f his com ­ p o sitio n s. This w as follo w ed the next year by a one -m an show covering Réth's e n tire oeuvre, w here forty-five w o rks produced between 1912 and 1948 w ere ex­ hibited. His w o rk received extensive media coverage. Jacques Lassaigne described 106 The H u n g a ria n Q u a rte rly the e x h ib itio n in the fo llo w in g w ords: "Réth is one o f the m ost serious and m ost authentic vanguards o f the actual m ovem ent w o rkin g tow ards a b stra ctio n .” 15 F o llo w in g this, b ut s till in 1948, Réth was invited to participate in the e xh ib i­ tio n Tendances de T art a b stra it. The fo llo w in g year he had his retrospective in the Galerie Folklore o f Lyon. This was follow ed by the e xh ib itio n Le C ubism e (1 9 0 7 -1 9 1 4 ) in 1953 in the Musée d ’A rt m oderne de la V ille de Paris, w here Réth was am ong the participants. In 1955 the Galerie de l'ln s trtu t organized a re tro ­ spective fo r him , w here he showed fo rty -s ix o f his p a intin g s and George W alde­ m ar co n trib u te d an essay to the catalogue. In 1957 he contribu ted five paintings to the e x h ib itio n A r t A b s tra it. Les p re m ie re s g e n e ra tio n s (1 9 1 0 -1 9 3 9 )'6 held in the Musée de Saint Etienne; dated 1910, one o f his paintings, The R e la tio n s h ip between S tra ig h t and C urved Lines, was am ong the earliest w orks show n. T h ro u g h o u t the 1940s and 1950s Réth used a w ide varie ty o f m aterials fo r his com positions, w h ich included brick powder, cement, sawdust, pebbles, crushed seashells and eggshell, m atchsticks, slag, charcoal, w o o d fibre, shale and fabric. In a way, the series H a rm o n y o f M a te ria ls was already anticipated by a com posi­ tio n he produced in 1914, R obinsonia n Landscape. From as far back as 1914, Réth enriched the surface o f his w o rks w ith sand; la te r he added o th e r m aterials to his arm oury, the c o lo u r and the texture o f w h ich came to form an o rganic part o f his com positions. Réth was among the first to apply sand to his p a intin g s (two years afte r Braque's and one year after Picasso's s im ila r experim ents). Through his experim ents w ith clay, he participated in the p re lim in a iy h isto ry o f such m ovem ents as a rt b ru t o r the "m atié rists," whose m em bers included A lb erto Burri and Piero M anzoni. He evidently exerted an influence on some H ungarian artists also, m o st notably his good friend István Farkas, w h o experim ented w ith the same process, as seen in his paintin g S till L ife w ith Pipe (1928), and Ferenc Martyn, w hose co m p ositio n S tru ctu re (1970) relied on the same technique. R e tu rn to fig u r a tiv e a rt n the late 1950s and early 1960s, w hen he had to com e to terms w ith the fact I tha t he was com ing close to the end o f his life, Réth decided to com bine the m o tifs and characteristic features o f his various periods in the b u b b lin g m elting pot o f his expressive pow er: "th ro u g h his painting, he cut through the dilem m a between figurative and n o n -fig u ra tive art, between cold abstra ctio n and tachism ," George W aldem ar w ro te ,17 adding tha t "There are landscapes and faces overlapping. Réth created a w o rld in w h ich sign and m eaning are mixed together." T h ro ug h ou t this period he liked to use va rio u s textiles, w h ic h he appliquéd to the canvas as a substitute fo r paint. In the last period o f his life he was h on o ured w ith several retrospective exhibitions, such as one held in 1959 in the Gim pel Fils G allery in London, and another one arranged in 1963 in M ichel B ou tin 's gallery in Paris. 107 A rt In co n ju n ctio n w ith his re tu rn to figurative art, Reth returned to them es tha t w ere associated w ith the old m asters (The A d o ra tio n o f the M a g i, 1957; The Feast o f the Sardines, 1958). The latter was a paraphrase o f Goya's C a rn iva l Scene. M eanw hile, Réth continued to search fo r the m ost tim e ly fo rm o f expres­ sion. The achievem ents o f Neo-Expressionism o r A rt Inform el seem to answ er the questions he posed in his la st period, when he addressed the co ntem porary p u b lic by using a "sign language" to aid com prehension. Alfréd Réth died on September 17, 1966 in his studio. He was la id to rest in M ontparnasse cemetery, in the com pany o f Atlan, Baudelaire, Brancu§i, Man Ray, Maupassant, Soutine, Tristan Tzara and Zadkin. *+ . NOTES festos, th e g ro u p m ade an a tte m p t to b rin g to ­ 1 ■ N a g y b á n y a -B u d a p e s t, A u g u s t 18— O c to b e r 14, 1906. V á lo g a tá s le v e le ib ő l a 1 8 9 3 -1 9 4 4 m űvészek g e th e r th e a b s tra c t a rt s c h o o ls o f E u ro p e — e.g. fr o m th e C o n s tru c tiv is m , F u tu ris m , P u ris m , N e o -P la s tic - 1 8 9 3 -1 9 4 4 ). ism , D a d a is m a n d th e B a u h a u s — a n d to u n ite n a g yb á n ya i (A S e le ctio n L e tte rs o f th e N a g y b á n y a A rtis ts the a rtis ts in v o lv e d in th e fig h t a g a in s t th e p re ­ M is s io n A rt G alé ria , M is k o lc , 1997. p. 141. 2 ■ Születtem... Magyar képzőművészek életraj­ d o m in a n c e o f S u rre a lism . zai (I W as B o rn ... T h e A u to b io g ra p h ie s o f H u n ­ 12 ■ T he fo llo w in g g a ria n A rtis ts). P a la tin u s , 2002, Budapest, p. 208. s h o w n : A rp , B a u m e is te r, B ra n c u § i, B ruce, M a r­ 3 ■ The J u lia n A ca d e m y, Paris 1 8 6 8 -1 9 3 9 . N e w c e ll Y o rk , S h e p h e rd G a lle ry , 1989. D e la u n a y, V a n D o e sb u rg , D o m e la , G o n c h a ro v a , C ahn, a rtis ts w e re Csáky, R o b e rt am ong D e la u n a y , th o s e S o n ia 4 ■ In 1907 B u h o t s ta rte d to v is it th e A c a d e m y Gris, H u szá r, Janco, Klee, L a rio n o v , Léger, M a r- L a P ale tte. co u ssis , M iró , M o h o ly -N a g y , M o n d ria n , N ic h o l­ 5 ■ L ater o n B u h o t b e cam e the m a n a g in g d ire c ­ son, O z e n fa n t, Picasso, P ra m p o lin i, S e vra n ok, to r o f the O rie n ta lis t S o c ie ty o f the M usée G u im e t. Sim a, T ih a n y i, V a lm ie r, V a n to n g e rlo o , V illo n a n d 6 ■ R é th 's le tte r d a te d June V o rd e m b e rg -G ild e w a rth . 10, 1952. R é th 13 ■ Csaba Sík: B e q u e s t— A lin e B o u tin . 7 ■ D énes Z s ó fia : Tegnapi Újművészek (Y e ste r­ d a y 's N e w A rtis ts ), B u d a p e st, K ozm osz, Rend és kaland. B u d a p e s t, M a g ­ vető, 1972, p. 26. 1 4 B E x tra c ts fro m 1974. A lfré d R é th 's in te rv ie w fo r Témoignages pour Tart abstrait. p p . 9 -1 0 . th e p u b lic a tio n 8 ■ K ris z tin a P a ssu th : Avantgarde kapcsolatok Prágától Budapestig 1907-1930 (A v a n t-g a rd e O p .cit. p. 24 8 . C o n n e c tio n s fro m lis h e d in th e jo u r n a l P ra g u e to B u d a p e st 1 5 B Jacques 1907- 1930). B a la ssi K ia d ó , B u d a p e st, 1998. p. 58. 9 ■ L a u ra de C o p p e t a n d A la n Jones: L a ssa ig n e ’s w as pub­ Les e x p o s itio n s , o n M a rc h 3, 1948. The Art 1 6 B T h e a rtis ts in v ite d to th e e x h ib itio n in c lu d ­ Dealers. C la rk s o n N. P o tte rm Inc. N e w Y o rk , ed A rp, T a u b e r-A rp , 1984. p. 43. C alder, 1 0 B U n s ig n e d a rtic le : c r itic is m La Bataille, in th e c o lu m n Esti Kurír, A u g u s t 6, 1924. C sáky, Balia, R o b e rt and B e ö th y , B ra n c u s i, S o n ia D e la u n a y, Van D o e s b u rg , F re u n d lic h , G eizes, G o n c h a ro v a , p. 5. H e rb in , 11 ■ C ercle e t C a rré g ro u p : an a rt m o v e m e n t Kupka, H u s z á r, Léger, J a w le n s k ij, M an K a n d in s k y , Ray, M iro , Klee, M o h o ly -N a g y , fo u n d e d b y M ic h e l S e u p h o r a nd th e U ru g u a y a n M o n d ria n , N o u ve a u , O z e n fa n t, P ica b ia , S c h w it­ J o a q u im T o rre s G a rc ia in 1929, a lth o u g h it e ffe c ­ ters, S e u p h o r, S e v e rin i a n d S urva g e. tiv e ly b e g a n to fu n c tio n o n ly a y e a r la te r, 1 7 B W a ld e m a r George: Les silences d‘A lfred Réth, Paris, G a le rie A rm a n d Z e rz ib , 1968. in 1930. B y h o ld in g e x h ib itio n s a nd is s u in g m a n i­ 108 The H u n g a ria n Q u a rte rly