György Román Exhibition

Date:

18 February 1998 - 26 February 1998

Location:

Kieselbach Galéria (1055 Budapest, Szent István krt. 5.)

I came upon György Román 's art during the 1980s. His Boys with Motorbikes, which has since then become part of my collection, had a dramatic effect on me; this made me realize what the Hungarian saying that someone remains rooted to the spot means. I have felt from the first moment that he is one of the most important of Hungarian painters. In a way, I was able to experience the atmosphere of the great artistic discoveries of the beginning of the 20th century, since in the beginning there were just a very few of us who were enthusiastic about these paintings and for whom it was clear what Román 's real significance was. In organizing the exhibition, which was compiled from fifteen private collections and one museum, a great help was a prominent colleague of mine, Marianna Kolozsváry, whose father used to be a key figure in the originally tiny group of discoverers. The exhibition presents my selection of György Román 's paintings and graphics from before 1945, but in his life work, as this publication testifies, the following period is also represented by exceptionally powerful paintings.