JENŐ MURÁDIN
Count Géza Teleki and the Transylvanian Connections of the Artists' House
Demonstrably, several identical features characterized the opera tions of the two artists' societies MIÉNK* and the Artists' House (Müvészház), founded at nearly the same time in the early years of the 20 century. Among their declared objectives, the primary emphasis fell on supporting new art, promoting the spread of modernism; however, they both had to cope with a diversity of viewpoints, conflicting opinions arising from the heterogeneous membership and the gap between generations. The situation of the Artists' House was the more thorny. Striving toward safer wa ters, the ship of this latter society seemed to founder in the wake of many an aesthetic dispute. Withdrawals, group resignations, charges of corruption, libels and proprietary claims marred its or ganizational activities. Seen from today, the five-year operation and history of the Artists' House is reflected as it were in a double mirror. Incon testable it merits include presenting an unparalleled number of major works of art to the public, and it certainly fortified the bas tions of modernism also by demonstrating international relations. Ethically dubious practices, however, overshadowed its activities, disqualifying some of its leaders, certain considered or ill-con sidered courses of action. I f the thread of events is wound up from the end, it is a fairly simple picture we arrive at, shocking as it is in spite of its impre cision. As witnessed by the press of the day, the fall of the Artists' House was publicly interpreted in the following way: Count Géza Teleki, the chairman of the society, revolted by the fact that his Budapest palace had been turned into a club, had the whole bunch of hooligans ejected, and that was the end of the Artists' House. The core of truth in the summary judgment is difficult to un earth. The few scholarly studies on the subject of the Artists' House have not as much as mentioned the role of Count Teleki in maintaining the society. They have focussed mostly on the found ing manager Miklós Rózsa, who, undeterred by several blunders and failures, indefatigably started everything anew and assisted at the founding of KUT after World War I . The object of this study is not to draw up a history or evalua tion of the functioning of the Artists' House. It merely seeks to shed light on the aspect of the question alluded to by the title, lay ing the stress on Géza Teleki's contribution and the Transylvan ian exhibitions he promoted. th
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A QUARTER-SHIFTING ARTISTS' HOUSE
As far as the exact date is concerned, the Artists' House Art Soci ety (Müvészház Művészeti Egyesület) was founded on the 4 of December, 1909, and made its debut with two exhibitions in rapid succession in December and January. Its operations were financed by an art-dealer share company (with a full say in all matters), from whom it rented the rooms suitable for exhibitions at 9 Váci utca in the heart of Budapest. The forced marriage between them proved to be a failure, and was soon dissolved. Attempting to carry on its usual commercial activity, the share company swamped the public with dreadful kitsch. And did so under the hallmark of the Artists' House - much to the indignation of the membership. Litigation went on for almost five months, but at last separation was legalized as of October 24, 1910. The huge loss totalling 37,000 crowns was mostly discharged through a guar antee by Count Géza Teleki, the chairman of the society. Provisionally, the Erzsébetváros Club let its premises at 6 Városligeti fasor near City Park be used by the Artists' House for exhibitions free of charge. It was from here that the society moved back to the city centre, to 2 Kristóf tér, renting a whole storey in an imposing building. Miklós Rózsa was quite well up in obtain ing plenty of publicity for shifting its quarters to the new loca tion. The place was inaugurated on March 12, 1911, with a grand retrospective of an honorary member of the Artists' House Soci ety: József Rippl-Rónai. In spite of unabating internal strife: vice-chairman Béla Iványi Grünwald resigning, Pál Szinyei Merse and Károly Ferenczy step ping down from their society offices, the Artists' House leader ship hatched ever more ambitious plans. It won over to its cause Count János Zichy, minister of religious and cultural affairs, and, through his instrumentality and the significant financial support of Géza Teleki, managed to procure the building of the Count Jenő Zichy Museum. The building at the corner of Szegfű and Rózsa streets was rebuilt with an extravaganza exceeding all funds avail able. The neo-renaissance reconstruction was designed by the Nagyvárad (Oradea) architect László Vágó, who had built the Na tional Salon and acquired plenty of experience in shaping the in ternal spaces of theatres. In the refurbished Zichy Palace, the Artists' House could boast five skylight exhibition halls and an assembly hall, a wide lobby and stairways leading to them, of fices and even storerooms. The Artists' Club in the building had a separate entrance and a roof terrace, "an elevated genuine gar den" with plants. According to plans, the walls of the stairway th
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1-2. The Teleki Mansion at Alsózsuk. Photos by Katalin Beyer M . , 2006
hall were to have been decorated with frescoes. The guide de scribing the building at its inauguration mentions that two of these, those by Aladár Körösföi-Kriesch and Count István Zichy, were completed. In January, 1913, the palace, the new seat of the Artists' House, was opened with an exhibition of nearly 300 paintings, sculptures, graphics, and applied-art works, including major pieces by no table artists. Criticism and press coverage was not lacking either; nevertheless, a vacuum of silence ensued around the affairs of the society and its new seat. The artists' club - even i f the management's idea of obtaining financial coverage for costs were benevolently accepted - became a stumbling-block for the society. Baccarat players settled in at the club, huge sums lost or won changed owners. There was an ir resistible craze for this type of gambling in the Hungarian capital at the time. For all police action, gambling dens could not be stamped out. There were daily reports in the press of cases of em bezzlement, suicide, decent families ruined. Though faltering sometimes, Géza Teleki as the chairman of the society held on under immense pressure for a while. At the in auguration of the palace, his wife acted as hostess. Later on, how ever, he found the whole affair ever more burdensome and compromising. And on top of it all, the pressing debts of the so ciety only increased. To make things even more awkward, there would never have been a chance of a new building without Count Teleki 's contri bution and guarantee. "A young Hungarian magnate [ . . . ] , Count Géza Teleki deserves all credit", wrote Andor Cserna in a Bu dapest paper, "for it was due to his generosity and propensity for noble patronage that the Artists' House could acquire the stately palace of the late Jenő Zichy in Szegfű utca." The property was burdened with a huge mortgage. The management of the Artists' House owed 200,000 crowns in loans to the Municipal Union Sav ings Bank and a similar amount to Count Teleki. So, in trying to escape bankruptcy, the management secretly sold the building. Fi nally, Géza Teleki himself bought the building for 460,000 crowns so as to make up for lost dues by acquiring real estate. It must have been shortly - though not immediately - after this that the eviction of the Artists' House Society and Teleki's final break with the otherwise disintegrated Society occurred. 4
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"PAINTERS' COUNT"
The epithet had stuck to the Transylvanian magnate: it was used in the obituaries of the Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) papers at his death and at his funeral at the Teleki Crypt at Gcrnyeszeg (Gornesti). The love of art was by no means extraordinary, in fact, it was quite common in the Teleki family, which looked back to a long history. According to both the Éber-Gombosi dictionary and the article in the Thieme-Becker encyclopaedia (actually by the Hun garian art historian Károly Lyka), five members of the family were noteworthy painters or drawers, well above mere aristocratic am ateurism. The drawings that Blanka Teleki - imprisoned after the 1848 War of Independence - produced during her captivity are major documents in Hungarian history. Studying in Paris, Bella Teleki, a pupil of Munkácsy, made a promising start. The work of Ralph Teleki was fundamentally influenced by the Nagybánya (Baia Mare) School. For his artistic commitment, the applied artist Árpád Teleki and, for her excellent, prize-winning photos, Emma Teleki (Bella's younger sister) are also worthy of mention. Colonel Sándor Teleki, Sándor Petőfi's pal (the poet spent his hon eymoon at Teleki's Koltó [Coltäu] mansion), is remembered also for his caricatures. According to the genealogical table which József Biró drew up and the family preserved, Count Géza Teleki, whose fate was bound up with the Artists' House, was bom in Kolozsvár on Feb ruary 10, 1881. From a very early age, he was deeply interested in the arts; and he therefore chose to take up regular studies in this direction. He enrolled at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, which he attended between 1899 and 1901 according to name lists. Apart from the training he received there, his ac quainting Budapest artist circles was particularly important for him. Later on, he would often visit the capital, and was free to enter the studios of both Arts-Hall painters and the pioneering artists of modernity of the time. He had access to them by having met painters from the Nagybánya artists' colony who exhibited in Budapest and by having had impressions in the MIÉNK and the Artists' House societies. We have little data concerning his early period as a painter. He seems to have turned to the easel and brush with full commitment and fecundity only after these major organizational activities and 7
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having withdrawn to the solitude of his Alsózsuk estate after World War I . Still a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in the first years of the new century, he submitted a handful of works for the spring exhibition of the National Salon. Following this, he displayed a few landscapes and figurai compositions at the Artists' House shows. Not much more is betrayed of him in the lexicon entry of the 1912 National Salon Year Book. Having married, he and his wife, the beautiful and charming, former ball belle Margit Béldi, established themselves at Alsó zsuk (Jucu de Jos). Their mansion was to regularly welcome and entertain the local nobility, participants at the famous horse races and the artist friends of the host. (Ills. 1-2) It is quite interesting to note that Teleki had the mansion refurbished (before his marriage) by the well-known architect István Medgyaszay. This may have directed his attention towards the Gödöllő Art-Nouveau school. Close to Kolozsvár and the Bonchida (Bontida) and Válaszút (Räscruci) estates of the Bánffy family, it was a well-known man sion on a hilltop rising above the former Romanian serf village in the fertile valley of the river Szamos. It had a perfect view of the racecourse down below providing 8,000 metres for flat races and hound hunts rivalling the Alag races. For three Sundays from the end of September, the annual races made excellent entertainment for people from Kolozsvár and fur ther afield. And then followed the daily hunts for three months. The spectacular hound hunts usually involving groups of ten horses provided a pictorial theme for Géza Teleki and his guests too. According to the late Mihály Teleki's personal account, in case of fox chasing, participants wore red tails, and green tails when hares were chased. The guests were offered board at the Hubertus Inn run by the hunting society that rented the racecourse. The friends and invitees of the count stayed at his mansion. In his manuscript memoirs, Manó Markovits, a regular participant at the Alsózsuk races and hunts, put down his recollections of the at mosphere of these pre-war occasions: "Géza Teleki's house was packed with his brother Domokos's and his mother's families, his two merry sisters, numerous relatives and guests; they made the house continually throb with excitement and mirth: gipsy music, dance, games; in case of frost heaving, breakneck paper chases were conducted across the mill bank of the Szamos to the light ning rod on the rooftop of the mansion. The family of Count Kálmán Petrichevich-Horváth lived at Felsőzsuk (Jucu de Sus), 11
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3. Group photo at the beginning of the 20 century: (from left to right) Domokos Teleki, Géza Teleki, Judit Bánffy, Zsuzsanna Bánffy, Photo by
where the hunters would always be welcome guests. The com pany by and large considered it their duty to ride in full dress to Bonchida and pay homage to Count György Bánffy, the chairman of the society, who would always receive the guests cordially in his 'modest home' - actually, a most sumptuous and noble palace." The war put an end to all that; the last hound hunt being held in the autumn of 1913. After the Vienna Accord in 1940, the races were renewed for a short while. Fitting the period and style of historicism, the mansion was not particularly big, but homely, the guestrooms cosy. A wing of the L-shaped building is depicted in a painting by József RipplRónai in the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery. (Colour Plate VIII) This picture is material proof of the fact that a good number of the members of the Artists' House who were exhibiting their work in Kolozsvár in 1910 visited the Alsózsuk mansion of the Telekis. The painting has a lawn and groups of flowers in front of the wing of the building, whose entrance and fenestration have by now been changed. In the left of the compo sition, a page in black suit stands at attention. Soon after RipplRónai completed it, the work was exhibited at the Artists' House inauguration exhibition early in 1913. In contrast to later vague nesses, the catalogue was quite precise in naming the subject: "Count Géza Teleki's Mansion at Alsózsuk." Owing to his income from his several thousands of acres of land and letting of the racecourse, he could afford to support the various art movements of the period with loans and generous grants. There was no secret about the magnitude of his wealth. He was very much at the head of the list of major taxpayers in Kolozs County. At the time of the Transylvanian exhibition of the Artists' House in 1910, he paid 3,055 crowns in tax. The only ones to outpay him were the Bánffys of Bonchida and Válaszút, though with a vast difference. The "Painters' Count" set up his studio in his Alsózsuk man sion. Also, he acquired paintings, primarily from the MIÉNK and the Artists' House exhibitions; however, the details are unknown. It is our irreparable loss that the furnishings of the house fell vic tim to the senseless destruction and looting following World War II. Though unlike the Bonchida castle, the building itself survived the stormy period, nothing of the paintings, books, furniture re mained. It is not clear what happened to Teleki's correspondence with the artists of the period. Today, the mansion houses a school; a few wide-trunk oaks still stand as vestiges of its former park. A massive, vase-like block of stone stands in its foreground, its carvings of animal fig ures (hounds, a cock-fight, etc.) attest to an expert, artistic hand. (111. 4) 15
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Joánovics Brothers, Kolozsvár. By courtesy of Michael Dickinson. SHOWS IN KOLOZSVÁR AND NAGYVÁRAD
While hopeless bargaining went on concerning the rent of the Váci-utca showroom, the Artists' House management decided to make use of the summer months of the year 1910, too, and to or ganize exhibitions in the country. And opted for Kolozsvár and Nagyvárad. This was no mere coincidence, for the MIÉNK, which had been expelled from the National Salon only a year earlier, had arranged its country exhibitions in these two cities. There was an other consideration behind the decision, too: Count Teleki knew the localities, had direct experiences of them and social connec-
tions fitting his rank there. He had seen the 1909 MIÉNK exhibi tion in Kolozsvár, made some acquisitions there, and had the im pression that the audacious experiment by the organizer György Bölöni had in fact, for all the animosity it aroused, broken the ice, and the new experiment bid fairer prospects. So the Bölöni sce nario was copied every bit. The exhibition was promoted by posters stuck up throughout the city, notabilities came to the vernissage, several matinee lectures were held on the develop ment of modern Hungarian painting. The difference was that the Artists' House set up country sections and recruited supporting members. These campaigns, however, occasioned a number of abuses, and got several well-meaning organizers in rather embar rassing situations. 18
Visiting from his Alsózsuk estate, Géza Teleki set out to or ganize the exhibition in Kolozsvár, and start the recruiting of members. Though Miklós Rózsa had an astonishing talent for making contacts, Count Teleki was of great service to him. For, as opposed to Bölöni 's intentions, he sought to win over not only the middle classes but also influential members of the aristocracy of the city. The tactical idea was to obtain confidence from a wider circle of the middle classes. By the time director Miklós Rózsa and secretary Elemér Kónyay arrived in Kolozsvár in the middle of June (to be later joined by vice-chairman Béla Iványi Grünwald), everything had been arranged. With Count Teleki chairing, a preparatory meeting was held on establishing the local section, with Rózsa outlining the concept. A day before the opening of the exhibition, on June 24, the statutory meeting of the section was held. Teleki was the first speaker in front of a large audience assembled in the city hall. " A l l gentlemen and ladies with a clean name belonging to the so ciety of Kolozsvár," paper reports stated, "who wish to partici pate in the labours of the Artists' House will be accepted as members." The cause seemed to be so sublime that Félix de Gerando of Le Figaro, Paris (related to the Telekis by marriage) made an enthusiastic closing speech calling on everyone to take up membership. Lord Lieutenant Count Kálmán Esterházy was elected chairman, while Count Pál Bethlen, Countess Polixéna Nemes, Imperial and Royal Chamberlain Endre Dózsa, and his torian Lajos Szádeczky were elected to vice-chairmanship. Re spected members of the city aristocracy and upper middle class were selected to be on the board. The Kolozsvár painter Ferenc Ács and a bank cleric, Béla Kun (later to become the leader of the Republic of Councils), were appointed as curators (the role of the latter shall be discussed below). In the meanwhile, the exhibition was being arranged fever ishly. The walls of the spacious assembly room of the county hall (the monumental building with a tower designed by Ignác Alpár) were covered with brownish red drapery for hanging the 178 paintings and drawings brought for the show. On June 25, after a word of welcome by Count Géza Teleki, Mayor Géza Szvacsina opened the exhibition, which the public could visit for three weeks (until July 17). Paintings of lesser size and merit were selected for the exhibi tion. The MIÉNK show had probably been able to present a more unified body of works. Nonetheless, there certainly were a num ber of museum worthy masterworks, and a number of artists, József Rippl-Rónai, Károly Ferenczy, Béla Iványi Grünwald, Adolf Fényes, Károly Kernstok, displayed excellent pieces, though Szinyei and Mednyánszky were rather under-represented.
Ernő Tibor and István Balogh stood for the Nagyvárad artist com munity, Ferenc Ács, the pioneer of Transylvanian plein-air paint ing, for that of Kolozsvár. No catalogue was published for the show, but two significant critical articles by Dr. Hugó Lukács and Aladár Bodor provided important and valuable pieces of infor mation. Dr. Hugó Lukács, a physician who had treated the poet Endre Ady, was an ardent enthusiast of modern art, and supported this Kolozsvár display just as he had the MIÉNK show. He gave a lecture at the July 3 matinee of the Artists' House with the title "Artists and the Public." 23
The exhibits divided the art-loving public of the city just as much as those of the MIÉNK display arranged by György Bölöni had done a year earlier. Organizers and exhibitors alike received both hailing backing and reviling rejection, but there even were acquisitions, though not too numerous. According to press reports, Count Miklós Bánffy, Reformed Bishop Béla Kenessey and Dr. Hugó Lukács bought (unidentified) pictures, and Mayor Szva csina acquired three etchings of Kolozsvár street scenes by Dezső Tipary for the municipality. The Nagyvárad show of the Artists' House fully emulated the Kolozsvár one. It was preceded by a similar membership recruit ing meeting in the middle of August. Except for the paintings that had been sold, the pictures were transported at the same time. The material was then eked out by a number paintings of Lajos Gulácsy and, after the opening, by a few of József Egry's works. A large-scale (2><2 metre) cartoon for a fresco in the Nagyvárad palace of Imre Darvas by Jenő Remsey, who belonged to the Gödöllő school, was also on display. The exhibition was opened by Lord Lieutenant Endre Hlatky of Bihar County. Visits were especially fostered by the matinees at which members of the modernist Holnap (Tomorrow) Circle, Gyula Juhász, Tamás Ernőd and Ákos Dutka lectured. 24
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CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE, PROMISES UNKEPT
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The storms around the running of the Artists' House reached Tran sylvanian quarters even before the artists' club and gambling scan dals broke out. The reason being that promises were not fulfilled. From the outset, it struck some as suspicious that supporting members were recruited through unlimited promises made to them. It was pledged that whoever paid the annual 20-crown membership fee could participate in the drawing of lots arranged by the society. "The society will draw enough artworks," so said the rosy promises, "for all members to receive one every year. The most valuable prize will equal 1000 crowns, but even the least valuable prize will be worth double the annual fee. [...] Members of the Artists' House Society shall also be given, apart from the prizes, subscriptions for the illustrated magazine Modern Art." Obviously, none of this could ever have been kept. To no avail did members wait for the fulfilment of promises. What is more, it was not only a handful of people who felt deceived. In Kolozsvár, 218 people joined the Artists' House Society, while 230 in Nagyvárad. At the end of September, 1910, the Kolozsvár press reported that a police investigation had begun against the society in matters of accounting regarding the "private dealings of Mik lós Rózsa and Elemér Kónyay". Feelings that had been given vent to by conservative circles regarding the exhibition now ran 21
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high. Characteristically, their arguments combined the rejection of modern art with the unethical conduct of the organizers and a repulsion to social progress and even the budding socialist labourprotection movement. Charges were voiced that the organizers of the Artists' House imposed upon the benevolence of the aristoc racy, they deceived them, caught them in the net of their basest in terests. Ideological reasoning continued to be rehearsed, identifying modern art with the "foolish poetry" of Ady and the members of the Tomorrow Circle, with the worldview of those whose "whole intellectual food is based on reading Népszava and its pulp booklets." Sane voices, like that of Hugó Lukács, were stifled in the din of battle. In contrast to the MIÉNK show, the scandal around the Artists' House seemed to provide invincible ammunition for the "mould knights" of conservatism. The person of Béla Kun, mentioned in passing above, was also a thorn in the flesh. The future Commune leader was inherited by the Artists' House from György Bölöni. He had been a school mate of Bölöni's at the Zilah (Zaläu) Wesselényi College, and, as a Kolozsvár journalist and an able organizer, he had given a hand in the preparations for the MIÉNK show. The socialist party functionary made himself conspicuous by bustling to organize the Artists' House exhibition. Apart from be coming a curator of the Kolozsvár section of the Artists' House Society, he took the minutes of its statutory meeting. Pursuing his journalistic career in Kolozsvár, Nagyvárad, Bu dapest, then back in Kolozsvár again, Kun had already served a prison sentence for instigation to violence against authorities. It was also known to many that his job at the Worker Insurance Bank meant none other than the status of an independent party official. He boosted the circulation of Népszava, as well as wrote in it. This in itself was enough for taking offence. Scorned at anyway, he further aggravated his situation by his famous scandal, his em bezzlement at the Worker Insurance Bank. This new embarrassing affair seemed very much to re-echo his earlier public conduct. Fi nally, the whirlwind of the outbreak of war covered up everything. It was already July 1914. Béla Kun evaded being sentenced by instantly volunteering for front service. To return to the confidence crisis in the Artists' House, a law suit at the Nagyvárad court revealed the matters of the unfulfilled promises. A well-known Nagyvárad lawyer, Zsigmond Lengyel, also a supporting member, sued the society as members did not even get as much as answers to their inquiries. By way of re sponse, the management decided to publish the results of a draw ing, but declared that the condition of handing over the prizes would be the payment of fees in arrears. This ploy had already been tried against 218 Kolozsvár members in September, 1910. Finally, Lengyel was sent some worthless, unsigned piece of work, and, weary of the wrangling, was on the verge of giving up his case. But this time, the society itself requested the continuation of the trial, having obtained a ruling that declared the "exclusive jurisdiction of the Budapest court." This legal quibbling meant that malcontents could seek redress only at a court in the capital. Now, and this the management of the society were perfectly aware of, who on earth would come up to Budapest and run into ex penses on litigation in such a matter. The press of the day was as harsh and merciless about the so ciety as it could be. "No one could have compromised Hungarian art life more than the bagmen of the Artists' House," wrote a Nagyvárad daily. One can no longer determine the exact role 29
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4. C o c k f i g h t . R e l i e f c a r v i n g i n the garden o f the A l s ó z s u k mansion
Miklós Rózsa and his associates played in this. The fact that Géza Teleki separated from him not in relentless anger seems to cor roborate his case. 36
The Artists' House put up no further collective exhibitions in Transylvania. There remained, however, a few points of contact with quarters in Transylvania and the Nagyvárad area [the Parts]. The society arranged a one-man exhibition for Ernő Tibor, a mem ber the Tomorrow Circle, in the autumn of 1910. However, it is even more surprising that István Nagy's oneman show at the Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mures) Culture Palace early in 1914 was organized under the auspices of the Artists' House Society, in particular with the patronage of Géza Teleki and Károly Kernstok referred to as leaders of the society! According to press reports, they "organized the exhibition, and recommended it to public attention." Shortly afterwards in April, 1914, the Bu dapest public could see an exhibition of István Nagy's works to gether with those by Sándor Teplánszky and Lipót Gedő. In all probability, this was one of the last manifestations of the activities of the Artists' House. 37
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EPILOGUE: TOWARDS A PATRON'S CAREER
Géza Teleki withdrew from public life at a historical watershed. Regarded by painters as a genuine apostle, even daring to take a stand for The Eights, a group of avant-garde artists, he left the stage of art movements baffled and with a bitter heart. Soon he would receive his call-up order, and fight through on all the fronts of the war. Upon his return, everything changed around him: the old world had for ever lost its features. His estates fell victim to the Ro manian land reforms, which afflicted Transylvanian Flungarians with endless abuses. The horse races terminated, the great hunts were restricted to family members. Breadwinning for his family came to be a concern, too, especially after an unfortunate busi ness venture ransacked the remains of his properties. He would never have thought that he would be forced to sell his paintings to ease his family's finances. It is worth citing here a period on his 1930 Kolozsvár exhibi tion phrased with the gusto of an accomplished writer, probably Károly Kós: "Were we not to be acquainted with the sad roman-
bition, he presented oils, watercolours and drawings. The appre ciative article presently cited mentions a few of them by their ti tles: Merry-Making Lads, Lumber Thief, Noon, Summer Cottage, and a sketch for a symbolic piece called Life. It is characteristic of the East-European looting of mansions and castles, the scattering of artworks and paintings in the wake of World War II that only one or two of Teleki's paintings have turned up, owned by family members living in the West. It is thus impossible to tell what kind of pictorial attitude and manner he worked with, how far he had been influenced by the moderns of the turn of the century he had been passionately fond of. (The ex cellent art historian József Biró, who also visited the Alsózsuk mansion, offered some highly appreciative comments on his works.) His figure is preserved in a handful of photos - usually family group shots where his features are identifiable. In one, he and his elder brother, Domokos, born in 1880 (both wearing elegant suits and boaters) are in the company of the Bánffy daughters. The Erdélyi Lapok, the magazine of the Transylvanian Literary Soci ety, published an article on the Artists' House exhibition illustrated by portrait photos of Count Géza Teleki, Béla Iványi Grünwald, Miklós Rózsa and Elemér Kónyay. From semi-profile, Teleki looks into the camera with his obligatory pipe in his mouth. His gait is calm, a man of poise, his high forehead a characteristic fea ture of his family. In his last years, he hardly left his home. His early death sur prised even those who had known him. He was not 58 when death overtook him on October 29, 1937. (Art encyclopaedias do not bother to mention the date of his death.) His nephew already men tioned recollected his funeral: " A four-oxen cart brought him up here (to the Teleki crypt on the Gemyeszeg hill), with black cloths on their horns..." The family history can be eked out with a few details. The younger daughter of Géza Teleki and Margit Béldi, Ella Teleki, was born in Budapest in 1918. She married John Dickinson, the Eastern European organizer of the British secret service (she died in Baden-Baden in 2004). Their only son, John Michael Dickin son (b. 1943) lives in Luxembourg. It is photos from him (the grandchild fluent in Hungarian), Kálmán Teleki (in Brussels) and Júlia Teleki (in Bavaria) that help invoke the family atmosphere at the turn of the century. 4]
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5. Géza Teleki's elder daughter, Kató, on horseback in the mansion garden. By courtesy of Michael Dickinson.
ticism of the life of this art-loving aristocrat; were we not to know the distinction he gained by the competent and self-sacrificing support he afforded to the establishment of the Budapest Artists' House and the then revolutionary art movements in the pre-war days; and were we not aware that the over seventy works filling the two exhibition rooms are by a painter who had been the owner of thousands of acres of land before the land reform, and who had made his sacrifices for supporting painting out of noble passion with the wealthiest of means behind him, and who now, as hard ships have befallen all, seeks, without any pose of despair, bread instead of luxurious flirtation from his muse, we would even then sense from his themes, from the direction of his sensibility, the style of his paintings that we face a man for whom art has always been, whether as a lover or creator of art, an innermost, spiritual cause." Withdrawal and solitude at Alsózsuk favoured calm labours. From the 1920s, Teleki sent his newly-made pictures to exhibi tions in Transylvania. He thus displayed his paintings entitled Snow Melting and Head Study at the 1921 Collegium Artificum Transsylvanicorum show exhibiting the work of artists from all round Transylvania. At the 1930 show, his only one-man exhi 39
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NOTES * The Hungarian acronym stands for Magyar Impresszionisták és Naturalisták Köre (i.e. Circle o f Hungarian Impressionists and Naturalists), and means: " O U R S " - t h e trans. 1 Németh, Lajos ed. Magyar művészet 1890-1919. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1981, p. 131; Zwickl, András. "The Artists' House (1909-1914)." In: Németh, Zsófia ed. Artists 'Studios and Exhibition Spaces {Public Spaces of Modern Ar chitecture in Budapest 2). Budapest: Emst Múzeum, 2003, pp. 210-217. [KUT stands for Képzőművészek Új Társasága (i.e. The New Society of Artists), and associates " F O U N T A I N " - the trans.]. 2 Rózsa, Miklós. " A Müvészház története." In: Kalauz a Művészház palotafelavató kiállítására. Budapest: Müvészház, 1913, p. 9. 3 -y -r. [Kónyay, Elemér], " A Művészház palotája." In: op. cit., p. 19. 4 Ibid., p. 18. 5 Csema, Andor. "Az új Müvészház." In: Egyetértés, January 23, 1913, p. 10. 6 " A Művészház csőd előtt." In: Esti Újság, May 10, 1914, pp. 5-6. The refur nished building now rooms the Czech Embassy and cultural institute. 7 " A 'festők grófja'". In: Keleti Újság, November 3, 1937. p. 7.
8 Éber, László and György Gombosi eds. Művészeti lexikon. Vol. I I , Budapest, 1935, p. 525; Thieme, Ulrich and Felix Becker eds. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Vol. 33, Leipzig, 1938, p. 510. József Biró's description in his book on Transylvanian mansions (Erdélyi kastélyok. Budapest, 1943) is illuminating in this respect, personally mentioning the "prematurely dead, extremely talented lord of Alsózsuk, Géza Teleki." 9 The personal communication of Kálmán Teleki (Brussels). According to ency clopaedias, he was born at Gernyeszeg, but no birth registries at the Marosvásárhely Public Archives attest to this claim. 10 Az Országos M. Kir. Képzőművészeti Főiskola volt növendékeinek névsora az intézet alapításától (1871) kezdve az 1932/33-ik tanévig bezárólag. Budapest, 1933, p. 102. 11 Nemzeti Szalon Almanach. Budapest, 1912, p. 210. 12 The daughter of Count Ákos Béldi, who played various roles in Transylvanian public life, including the Transylvanian Hungarian Cultural Society (EMKE). 13 Potzner, Ferenc ed. Medgyaszay István. Budapest: Holnap Kiadó, 2004, p. 202. 14 Marosi, Ildikó. Örökbe hagyott beszélgetés gróf Teleki Mihállyal. Csíkszereda: Argumentum-Pallas Akadémia, 2004, pp. 89-90. 15 Markovits, Manó (Count). Emlékezés Zsukra 1905-1913 (manuscript in the es tate of the author). 16 József Rippl-Rónai: The Zsuk Mansion. Oil on cardboard, 55,5*70 cm, signed below left: Rónai. Hungarian National Gallery, inv. no. 89.42 T. As Zsukki kastély, it appears in the object list of the catalogues of 1917 spring exhibition of the Art Society; it was reproduced in the magazine Művészet (Spring, 1917, p. 39). 17 " A vármegye urai - K i k a virilisek?" In: Kolozsvári Hírlap, November 16, 1910, p. 2. 18 Murádin, Jenő: "Vadak a végeken. - A M I E N K kolozsvári kiállítása 1909-ben." In: Korunk, 2006, no. 4, pp. 95-100. 19 " A M ű v é s z h á z nagygyűlése és vernisage." In: Ellenzék, June 23, 1910, p. 3. 20 "Transylvanizmus és decentralizáció." In: Ellenzék, June 25, 1910, p. 3. 21 " A M ű v é s z h á z alakuló közgyűlése." In: Újság, June 25, 1910, pp. 2-3. 22 Teleki himself exhibiting three of his works. 23 Dr. Lukács, Hugó. " A 'Művészház' képkiállítása." In: Újság, June 28, 1910, p. 4; Bodor, Aladár: "Művészek Kolozsvárt." In: Újság, July 21, 1910, pp. 1-2. 24 "Vernissage." In: Kolozsvári Hírlap, June 26, 1910, pp. 2-3. 25 " A város képvásárlása." In: Ellenzék, July 2, 1910, p. 149. 26 "Matiné a Müvészházban." In: Nagyváradi Napló, September 4, 1910, p. 206.
27 "Magyar művészek Kolozsváron." In: Újság, June 18, 1910, p. 4. The magazine Modern Művészet was edited by Miklós Rózsa. 28 "A Művészház botránya - A kolozsvári ber 23, 1910, pp. 1-2.
kiállítás háttere." In: Ellenzék, Septem
29 L. Sipos, Kamilló. "Művészietlen 'Művészet'." In: Ellenzék, July 1, 1910, p. 3. [Népszava, i.e. "the Voice o f the People", the paper of the Social Democratic Party at the time - the trans.] 30 Bölöni made a note of this in his memoirs of Ady: " I n Kolozsvár, a handful of intellectuals and journalists helped me extort the attention of the city with these daring pictures, whose recognition had to be battled for even in Budapest. Among them was Lipót Fejér, the yet young but already famous mathematics professor, the fledgling writer Gyula Török, and Béla Kun, the official of the Worker Insurance Bank, Incze Sándor who started his career with his theatre magazine here, and the kind-hearted Endre Szász, still an editor in Kolozsvár." (Az igazi Ady. Paris: Atelier, 1934, p. 198.) 31 " A M ű v é s z h á z alakuló közgyűlése," op. cit. (see Note 21) 32 Borsányi, György. Kun Béla. Politikai életrajz. N.p. [Budapest:] Kossuth Könyv kiadó, 1979, p. 26. 33 " A Müvészház nyereménytárgyai." In: Újság, December 28, 1910, pp. 3—4. 34 " A Müvészház üzérkedései a nagyváradi bíróság előtt." In: Nagyváradi Napló, March 2, 1913, p. 5. 35 Ibid. 36 This is alluded to in Miklós Rózsa's printed dedication in his book on Hungarian impressionism (A magyar impresszionista festészet. Budapest: Pallas, 1914): "To Count Géza Teleki in remembrance of our three-year collaboration. M.R." 37 Erdélyi, Nelly. "Tibor Ernő tárlata a Müvészházban." In: Nagyváradi Napló, Oc tober 11, 1910, p. 237. 38 "Székely festőművész nálunk." In: Székely Napló, February 21, 1914, p. 2. 39 (k.): "Teleki Géza képkiállításán." In: Ellenzék, October 21, 1930, p. 2. 40 Collegium Artificum Transsylvanicorum - Az Erdélyi Képzőművészeti Szalon katalógusa. Kolozsvár, 1921. 41 Géza Teleki's exhibition was opened at the Glazed Room of the County Hall often used by the art-loving public of the city on October 19, 1930. It was in the very same room where the Artists' House had arranged its show back in 1910. 42 Biró, József. Erdélyi kastélyok. Budapest: Új Idők Irodalmi Int., 1943, reprinted, n. p. [Budapest:] Heraldika Kiadó, n. d. [1997], p. 100. 43 -s -ő: "A Müvészház kiállítása." In: Erdélyi Lapok, 1910, pp. 381-383. 44 Marosi, op. cit. (see Note 14), p. 113.
Gróf Teleki Géza és a Művészház erdélyi kapcsolatai
Aki a 20. század eleji magyar művészeti élet sokágú törekvései vel és egyesület-alapító kezdeményezéseivel foglalkozik, annak kikerülhetetlenül a mögöttük álló menedzser típusú szervezők hozzájárulására is figyelnie kell. A szoros időrendi közelségben alakult MIENK és Müvészház egyesületek működése például fel tételezi Bölöni György vagy Rózsa Miklós föllépésének közelebbi megismerését vagy kritikai vizsgálatát. Nagyobb lélegzetű visszatekintő kiállítások vagy rekonstruk ciók esetében ez rendszerint nem is marad el. Ami a Müvészházat illeti, a közelgő centenárium (az egyesület 1909-ben alakult meg) egy olyan egyéniségre is ráirányítja a figyelmet, akivel eddig a művészettörténeti kutatás egyáltalán nem foglalkozott. Gróf Teleki Gézáról van szó, akinek anyagi és erkölcsi hozzájárulása a társadalmi élet szirtjei között nehezen hajózó egyesületnek rend kívüli támasza volt. A Rózsa Miklós által létrehozott szervezet voltaképp addig működött, amíg valamilyen formában magáénak tudhatta ennek az egykor dúsgazdag erdélyi mágnásnak a támo gatását. Mindez akkor is így igaz, ha a szakítás nem volt olyan drámai, mint ahogyan az a korabeli közbeszédben jelentkezett. Gróf Teleki Géza (1881-1937) szimpatizánsként, de nem tel jesen kívülállóként került közel az egyesülethez. Mint többeket a Teleki családból (történetileg is visszavezethetően), őt is vonzot ták a művészetek. A budapesti Mintarajziskolában 1899 és 1901 között végzett tanulmányokat, és közelebbi ismeretségeket kötött a századelő jelentős magyar művészeivel. Alsózsuki kastélyát a gödöllőiek köréből is ismert Medgyaszay Istvánnal alakíttatta át. Maga az alsózsuki (Kolozsvárhoz közeli) kastély és birtok, a ne vezetes lóversenyek és vadászatok színhelye is vonzotta festőba rátait. Rippl-Rónai Józsefnek egy ott készült festményét {Gróf Teleki Géza kastélya Alsózsukon, MNG) a Müvészház 1913-as tárlatán mutatták be. A „festők grófjának" emlegetett, több ezer holdnyi birtokkal rendelkező erdélyi arisztokrata a kastélyban rendezte be saját műtermét, innen követte a modern művészetek fogadtatását a MIÉNK kiállításai kapcsán, s ilyenformán került kapcsolatba a Müvészház szervezőivel is. Már a kezdetektől se gítette abban az egyesületet, hogy leválhasson egy színvonaltalan műkereskedő részvénytársaságtól, mellyel meggondolatlanul kö tött együttműködési szerződést. Az óriási ráfizetést: 37 000 ko rona elszámolási összeget gróf Teleki Géza szavatossága mellett fizették ki. A tekintélyes birtokos arisztokratának meghatározó szerepe volt a Müvészház 1910-es kolozsvári és nagyváradi kiállításainak
megszervezésében. Az ő rangja, feddhetetlen renoméja segítette hozzá a társaságot, hogy vidéki szakosztályokat és tagdíjat fizető nagyszámú pártoló tagságot toborozzon. Az viszont már távolról sem rajta múlott, hogy Rózsa Miklós és Kónyay Elemér, az egye sület igazgatója, illetve titkára nem tudta honorálni a tagsággal szemben vállalt kötelezettségeit. A Müvészháznak elvitathatatlan érdeme volt, hogy élvonalbeli művészek nagyszámú alkotását vitte a közönség elé, a modernizmus térhódítását segítve, más felöl azonban az egyesület működését meggondolatlan lépések, etikai árnyak kísérték. A beváltatlan ígéretek perekhez és eltávo lodásokhoz vezettek, az egyesületen belül kiválásokat eredmé nyeztek. Teleki támogatása nélkül a müvészegyesület nem is gondol hatott volna arra, hogy önálló, reprezentatív székházhoz jusson. Az érdem - írta 1913-ban Cserna Andor a budapesti Egyetértés ben - „egy fiatal magyar mágnásé [ . . . ] . Gróf Teleki Géza ritka bőkezűsége, nobilis mecénási hajlama tette lehetővé, hogy a Művészház megszerezhesse néhai gróf Zichy Jenő Szegfű utcai előkelő palotáját." Az épületet Vágó László építész alakította át, akinek a Nemzeti Szalon tervezésében és színházak belső térala kításában komoly gyakorlata volt. Mindez pazarló bőséggel, ha talmas kiadásokkal történt. Öt felsővilágítású nagy terem, iroda és raktárhelyiségek, külön művészklub és tetőkert kápráztatta el a látogatókat. A széles fóljáratú lépcsőházba falképek sorát tervez ték, melyek közül a Körösfői-Kriesch Aladáré és Zichy István grófé el is készült. így került sor a Müvészház nevezetes palota felavató kiállítására 1913 januárjában, melyen közel 300 fest ményt, grafikát, szobrot és iparművészeti munkát mutattak be. A kiállítás házigazdái Teleki Géza és felesége, gróf Béldi Margit voltak. Ez a nagy visszhangú kiállítás volt az egyesület életének lát ványos csúcspontja, ugyanakkor a szétesést épphogy elfedő tűzi játéka. A székházat hatalmas jelzáloggal terhelték meg. A Mű vészház vezetősége 200 000 koronával tartozott az Egyesült Fővá rosi Takarékpénztárnak, és majdnem ugyanannyival Teleki gróf nak, így azután a csődtől menekülve az épületet titokban eladták. Végül is Teleki Géza maga vette meg a palotát 460 000 koroná ért, álló tőkébe, ingatlanba menekítve veszteségeit. A tanulmány végigköveti gróf Teleki Géza pályáját a Művész háztól való elválása után is: első világháborús harctéri szolgálata után visszavonultságának évei következtek. A könyvekkel, ké pekkel tele alsózsuki kastély ura azután kezdett ismét a festészet
felé fordulni, hogy birtokainak nagy része a román földreform ál dozata lett, és egy szerencsétlen üzleti vállalkozás a vagyon ma radékát is elemésztette. A festészet most már a megélhetés legszükségesebbjéhez biztosított némi jövedelmet. Tárlatokra kül dött be képeiből, és 1930-ban Kolozsvárt mintegy hetven festmé nyét bemutató önálló kiállítást rendezett. Festményei között tájképeket, portrékat, kompozíciós müveket láthatott a közönség, továbbá az Elet című nagyméretű szimbolikus műnek a vázlatát. Az utolsó években alig mozdult ki otthonából. 56 éves korában, 1937. október 29-én hunyt el Alsózsukon. A Teleki család kriptá jában, a Maros-Torda megyei Gernyeszegen temették el. A két világháború között a magyar közéletben már alig esett szó Teleki Gézáról és egykori művészeti szerepvállalásáról. A visszavonultan élő volt nagybirtokosról csak egyetlen önálló kiállítása kapcsán történik érdembeli említés 1930-ban. Az alább idézett (k. betűjellel jegyzett) írás szerzője feltehetően Kós Károly. „Ha nem is tudnánk a művészetbarát arisztokrata életé nek szomorú romantikájáról, ha nem ismernénk a háború előtti
időkben a budapesti Művészház megalapításával, s az akkori for radalmi festői irányok hozzáértő és önfeláldozó támogatásával szerzett érdemeit, s ha végül fogalmunk sem volna arról, hogy a kiállítás két termét megtöltő több, mint hetven mű olyan festőé, aki az agrárreform előtt mint több ezer holdas nagybirtokos, a leg gazdagabb életlehetőségek között úri szenvedéllyel áldozott a pik túra támogatásának, hogy azután most a mindenkire ránehezedett nehéz körülmények között az elkeseredés legkisebb póza nélkül fényűző flört helyett kenyeret kérjen múzsájától, akkor is érez nénk témáiból, érdeklődésének irányából, képeinek stílusából, hogy olyan emberrel állunk szemben, akinek a művészet, műélvező vagy alkotó pillanataiban egyaránt legbelsőbb lelki ügye volt." A család történetének bemutatását a leszármazottak adatköz lései és előzékenyen rendelkezésre bocsátott egykori fényképfel vételei segítették. Közülük említi a szerző gróf Teleki Géza unokáját, a Luxemburgban élő John Michael Dickinsont, továbbá Teleki Kálmánt (Brüsszel) és Teleki Júliát (Bajorország).
