On the evening of 23rd November 2008, after the very last visitor had left, Budapest Art Fair 2008 closed its gates. The antique and contemporary exhibition and fair celebrating its 15th jubilee took place between 20th – 23rd November at Műcsarnok. The rooms were then emptied of the works of Mihály Munkácsy, Lajos Gulácsy, József Rippl-Rónai, Alfred Reth, Béla Kádár, Sándor Bortnyik and other famous artists, giving up their places for the next exhibition hosted by Műcsarnok. On the day after the Art Fair, only the frame of the tent hosting contemporary artworks was left as a reminder of the four-day event.
The exhibition, which took place with the participation of fifty notable galleries, was a financial success in spite of the recession’s beginning effects on the art market. According to expectations, the number of visitors reached 8.500. Although, according to the galleries’ own evaluation, sales have brought less income than expected, still the total revenues during the exhibitons reached several hundred thousand euros for the participants of the Fair.
Gilden’s Arts Gallery present in both London and Tel-Aviv and participant at the Fair for several years, as well as the Galerie le Minotaure from Paris representing both antique and contemporary art, prepared for the Fair with the most valuable pieces of their collections. The centrepiece works of these galleries (by Gyula Batthyány and Alfred Reth) sold at high prices. According to the gallery owners, the works of Béla Kádár, Alfred Reth, Pascin, and Béla Bán were also greatly sought after. At the stand of Gilden’s Arts Gallery, Mihály Munkácsy’s ink drawings and Béla Kádár’s works were also popular and the Gallery successfully sold Sándor Bortnyik’s six-piece geometric compositon.
This year, the works of Sándor Bortnyik, a leading figure in Hungarian Avant-Garde, appeared at several stands. The Virág Judit Gallery and Auction House placed a valuable item from their winter auction in the centre of their stand: Sándor Bortnyik’s legendary painting, the “Géplovag” (“Machine Knight”) accompanied by a vintage motorbike – those interested could view, beside the installation, further information on the painting and the artist, on film.
The great auction houses – Kieselbach Gallery; Virág Judit Gallery and Auction House; Belvedere Salon, Gallery and Auction House; and MissionArt Gallery – brought a selection of their items to be auctioned in November and December to the Fair. Post-Impressionist Lajos Gulácsy’s 1910 oil painting titled “Karosszékben ülő leány“ (“Girl in an Armchair”) or László Mednyánszky’s “Alkonyi táj” (“Sunset Landscape”) – major 19th and 20th C. Hungarian works of art – appeared at the stand of Kieselbach Gallery. The masterpieces of József Rippl-Rónai were represented by Ernst Gallery: two valuable works of this leading figure in modern Hungarian painting and greatest Hungarian representative of Post-Impressionism and Art Nouveau appeared in the Budapest Art Fair selection of Ernst Gallery returning to the Fair after a 9-year absence. One of these is the artist’s 1914 painting titled “Menetelő francia katonák” (“Marching French Soldiers”), a protected national asset; and three bowls designed by Rippl-Rónai and manufactured by the world-famous Zsolnay Factory for the dining hall of Andrássy Palace in 1898.
At several stands, visitors of the exhibition could admire the powerful Expressionist works of Béla Kádár and Hugó Scheiber, János Vaszary’s Post-Impressionist creations, Gyula Battyány’s Art Nouveau female figures, the paintings of Béla Czóbel, István Csók, István Szőnyi, and the representatives of the Hungarian Avant-Garde movement (János Mattis Teutsch, Sándor Bortnyik, Vilmos Perlrott-Csaba and Lajos Kassák). At the stand of Erdész & Makláry Fine Arts, the works of 20th century and contemporary artists Judit Reigl, the recently deceased Simon Hantai, Tibor Csernus and István Sándorfi proved popular – all of whom were born in Hungary, though they created their works in France.
In the tent of contemporary art, the unique and often provocative works of internationally acclaimed Hungarian and famous international, artists were presented. The contemporary paintings, drawings, historical and contemporary photographs (the works of André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy, Márton Munkácsi), video-installations, statuettes and kinetic statues (like “mobile-sculptor” István Haraszty’s dynamic works at the stand of RadaR Gallery) sold between HUF 500.000 and HUF 2 million, at prices much more easily accessible to collectors than the classical and modern paintings leading the sales lists of Fair-participant galleries.
kArton Gallery and Museum held its 4th Caricature and Comics Auction on 23rd of November, the last day of Budapest Art Fair, which has proven the most successful auction to date: 90% of the items were sold, many of them high above start price. Eccentric street artist Banksy’s “Virgin Mary” silkscreen work started at HUF 250.000 and was sold for HUF 420.000, while Andy Warhol’s “One Blue Sam” watercolour depicting a pink cat sold for almost double the start price at HUF 2.8 Million. Ernő Zórád’s painting titled “Romantikus pestiek a Tabánban” (“Romantic people of Pest at the Tabán”) sold for HUF 900.000 starting from HUF 400.000. Scooby Doo, SpongeBob and Bambi were also popular, just like Hungarian animation cells – like scenes from Szaffi, Puzzola and Kockásfülű nyúl (“Chequered-ear rabbit”) – auctioned for the first time.
‘We are on the right track’ said Sándor Galambos, organiser of Budapest Art Fair in a brief evaluation of this year’s Fair. ‘The success of the Fair spectacularly proved last year’s change in name and profile right. The exhibition appears in an increasingly distilled form and with a concise concept. Our continued aim is to promote and aid the fame of classical and modern Hungarian painting both in Hungary and abroad, but we would also like to give a chance to contemporary artists, as they are the promise of the future. We intend to make the exhibition an important art event, just as international examples show. To achieve this, we offered our visitors a colourful programme: the Artmagazin Forum offered professional discussions, there were lectures on digital art for a small section of our visitors, we had an improvisational theatre, and guided tours. The most successful event was the interactive art playhouse – children enjoyed the creative process, they produced quite a few pieces inspired by the exhibition. These were then exhibited in the “mini-gallery”.’
The Budapest Art Fair 2009 antique and contemporary exhibition and fair will take place between 19th – 22nd November 2009 at Műcsarnok with the sponsorship of CIB Bank Ltd. that has been the greatest sponsor of Budapest Art Fair for five years now, and culture in general. We await our visitors to our website HYPERLINK “http://www.budapestartfair.hu” www.budapestartfair.hu with a renewed content from January.
The organiser of the art fair is Partner’s 2000 Ltd., Sándor Galambos, Managing Director and Kati Galambos, Organiser
Phone: +36 1 248 1335, Phone / Telefax: +36 1 319 3369
E-mail: HYPERLINK “mailto:info@budapestartfair.hu”info@budapestartfair.hu
Internet: HYPERLINK “http://www.budapestartfair.hu/”www.budapestartfair.hu
Upon request we are pleased to provide more information and photos, please call Rita Lepsényi, Communications Manager of the exhibition at +36 30 2000 339 or send an e-mail to HYPERLINK “mailto:press@budapestartfair.hu”press@budapestartfair.hu.
The main sponsor of the exhibition is CIB Bank Zrt., our sponsors are Hungarian National Tourist Office and Budapest Tourist Office, our media partners are Artmagazin, Europlakát-Avenir, The Budapest Times / Budapester Zeitung, Le Journal Francophone, Rossziszkij Kurier, and Index.hu.
