Résumé:
The deliberately undertaken objective of the present exhibition is to make an attempt at rehabilitating Béla Bán in the history of art. This is necessary since the oeuvre of Bán had a narrow escape from getting lost in the history of XX century Hungarian art because of different subjective reasons and objective circumstances. After his emigration his works were preserved by his relatives but they had littIe publicity and the new pictures painted in France, Argentina and Israel remained mainly unknown the public and the profession. The recently renewed research of Hungarian art of the thirties and forties coincided with the resolution of Bán's descendants to present part of the legacy in their possession to present part of the legacy in their possession to Hungarian public collections, namely to the museums of Pécs and Szombathely. Thus the present exhibition came into being. It tries to give an authentic reconstruction of the life-work, but the side-tracked products of the socialist-realist period are not on display. The survey of the entire life-work - the early works that left the country in 1956 and those of the emigration period - provides a lot of new information. Works believed to have been lost, missing links of composition-series belonging together and so far unknown groups of works have been found and light has been thrown on certain parallels and interrelationships with other Szentendre artists of the turn of the thirties and forties: Ámos, Margit Anna, Vajda.
The art-critic has the impression that for Bán art is not so much a programme as vegetative need, or a way of life. Béla Bán was preoccupied with human figures usually in emotionally intense situations in the relation of suffering, struggle, passion and sexuality. His sweeping, strongly exaggerated style, constructed with expressive forms, was unfolded in these figures. Idyll, harmony and the Mediterranean ideal of beauty vanish or are overshadowed in his pictorial world. At the same time metamorphoses of tipicaIly bio-romantic inspiration often appear in it.
Valuable conclusions may be drawn from the entire legacy conceming Béla Bán's meticulous working methods.
In the last period /1957-1972/, after the sidetrack of the fifties, old forms, long proved to be true and sovereign, were revived again in new technical solutions.
The résumé based on on an article by György Várkonyi, published in the catalogue issued on the occasion of Memorial Exhibition of Béla Bán in 1988.
May 14, 1909 he was born in Budapest
1925-28 he studied graphics at the College of Industrial Arts under Ferenc Helbing
1928-30 he was a pupil of Gyula Rudnay at the Fine Arts College
1934 was a foundation member of the Group of Socialist Artists
1938 was awarded "honourable mention" at the Spring Salons of the Szinyei Society
in the summer of 1939 he worked together with Lajos Vajda, Endre Bálint and Piroska Szántó in Szentendre
1940,1942, 1944 was an inmate of a forced labour camp for several months'
1942 second prize of fresco-competition "Freedom and Nation"
1943 member of the KUT
1944 his first one-man exhibition was cancelled because of the marching in of the Germans
1946-48 member of the European School
1947 scholarship to Paris
1948 third prize of the fresco-competition announced by the Ministry of Public Education and Religious Instruction
1949 fresco in the MÉM Head Office
1950 2nd degree of the Munkácsy Prize
1951-56 teacher of the Fine Arts College
1953 1 st degree of the Munkácsy Prize
1956-57 living in France
1958-63 living in Argentina
1963 settied down in Israel for good
1965 teacher of the Fine Arts College of TeI-Aviv
1966 Nordau Prize
1972 died in Tel-Aviv (Febr. 6)
1979-1987 After the commemorational exhibition held in Szombathely a collection was formed between the family of Béla Bán and the official representatives of museums.
1987 The family offered to present the legacy, selection of the material took place and the deeds of gift were made.
1988 167 works of art arrived from Israel to Hungary
One-man exhibitions:
April 21-28 1946 (2nd Exhibition of the European School)
March, 1947 The Latest Graphics of Béla Bán, Art Gallery (21st Exhibition of the European School)
October 3-16, 1947 Galerie Creuze Paris (together with Endre Bálint)
October 3-13, 1948 Free Organisation of Hungarian Artists
1955 Fényes Adolf Room, Budapest
1957 Galerie Creuze, Paris
1958 Galeria Antigona, Buenos Aires
1958 Hebraica, Buenos Aires
1960 Galeria Van Riel, Buenos Aires
1961 Galeria Van Riel, Buenos Aires
1962 Galeria Galatea, Buenos Aires
1965 Painters Association Pavilion, Tel-Aviv
1968 Dugith Galeria. Tel-Aviv
1968 Herzlia Museum, Tel-Aviv
July 20 - September 16, 1979 Museum of Revolution, Szombathely
November 4 - december 4, 1988 Pécs Gallery
April 13 – May 14, 1989 Budapest Exhibition Hall
May 24 - June 26, 1989 Szombathely Gallery