The Group Of The Eight – Under The Spell Of Cézanne And Matisse. Centenary Exhibition

<p>The members of the Group of the Eight (Róbert Berény, Dezső Czigány, Béla Czóbel, Károly Kernstok, Ödön Márffy, Dezső Orbán, Bertalan Pór, and Lajos Tihanyi) created their own painting style mostly under the spell of modern French art. Their exhibition organised in 1909 was a turning point in the history of Hungarian art: for the first time a young group of artists appeared on the scene whose work organically matched the most modern international trends. The members of the Eight were inspired by Fauvism, mostly by the work of Cézanne, apart from Matisse. Gradually, they turned to a kind of neoclassic monumentality from early pictorial solutions involving the use of dissolved, strong colours. The exhibition in Pécs is an attempt to recreate the three former exhibitions in Budapest, complemented with a representative collection of works by the members around 1910. An important aim of the exhibition is to integrate the art of the Eight into the modern trends of contemporary Europe.</p>