The paintings of the painter Imre Égerházi with a theme related to the folk past were exhibited in the Medgyessy Memorial Museum.
Debrecen. An unusual exhibition was organized by the board of the county museums together with the company headed by the artist’s youngest son at the Medgyessy Memorial Museum. This time, the visitors can not only admire the pictures in the halls, but several ethnographic objects have been placed in their foreground, partly on low podiums.
As the ethnographer Antal Lovas Kis, who opened the exhibition, put it: a “carriage convoy” that had been separated for almost 200 years was reconnected by this. That was the time to notice that the tools of the population of lower stance carried specific extra content from which the “higher” culture could also draw. This duality is well combined in Imre Égerházi’s paintings, as he himself came to the city-culture of Debrecen from a poor line, a simple family from Hajdúhadház, so for such a connection there could not be a better representative. In addition, the Transylvanian roots of his family, the creed of the ancestors of the painter who received a noble diploma for their work, are also present in his paintings.
Lajos Lakner, the director of the Déri Museum, who appeared at the exhibition, emphasized that the exhibition is also good for the visitor to experience how reality is transformed into images in another world. Miklós Filep, the head of the institutional maintenance department of the county municipality, reminded that the paintings of the painter (who died 9 years ago) were last exhibited in 1999 at the Medgyessy Memorial Museum, and some of the material from that exhibition can also be seen now. The opening was concluded by a short concert by the band Djabe, led by the artist’s youngest son, Attlia Égerházi. The exhibition is open until June 13, except Mondays.
Péter Égerházi
journalist