Imre Égerházi was 9 years old when they moved from Hajdúhadház to Debrecen. He was raised in Debrecen and matured as a painter but his ties to Hajdúság, and Hajdúhadház, were never cut. In the 90s, Hajdúhadház dedicated a creative house for him, a gesture he repaid by donating almost 100 of his art pieces to the city, and later received a certificate of honorary citizenship.
Nevertheless, we have to say: Imre Égerházi was an artist of Debrecen. He attended the local free school for fine arts, his mentors were residents of the city, he bound himself to the local artistic scene with 1000 ties.
He attended the permanent and intermittent exhibitions of Déry Museum regularly. He often found himself sitting in front of Mihány Munkácsi’s Ecce Homo, and later in front of the complete trilogy. . He was so psyched the pictures were finally together that on one afternoon he took me with to admire these grandiose works of art.
No coincidence he donated a representation of his life’s work to his favorite museum. These paintings, more than 100, are comprehensive to his complete ouvre till 1994, with all techniques used by the artist. Drawings, watercolors, monotypes, linocuts, and oil paintings all can be found among the collection.
The donation was announced on the exhibition of the complete assortment, held in the Medgyessy Memorial Museum, a part of Déry Museum. The event was reported excessively by local and national press, and Imre Égerházi was praised as one of the 20th century’s leading painter of the Great Hungarian Plain.
Documents, audio, and video material are all plentiful about the exhibition. Enter the wonderful world of the painter!
Budapest, 30. July 2020
Attila Égerházi