BERNÁTH, Aurél
(1895, Marcali - 1982, Budapest)



From the mid 1920s onwards, his style underwent a change with the post-Nagybánya School style substituting expressionism. Like painters of the Gresham Circle (István Szőnyi, József Egry, Ödön Márffy, Béla Czóbel and Róbert Berény), he subordinated vision to structure, colours and rules of composition. His oil pictures and pastel drawings reflect his experiences with strong feelings, as if they were poetic visions. The delicate interaction of his dominant colours (shades of yellow, blue and tobacco brown) give his pictures a touch of airiness and lyricism ("Winter", "Hotel Room", "Night with Butterflies", "Bench in the Evening", "Self-Portrait in Yellow Coat", "Terrace", "Self-Portrait in a Pink Room"). The brightness of light and the painting style which applied glaze disappeared from the mid 1930s. Typical pictures of this perio "In the Park", "Woman with a Child", "Landscape with a Bunch of Jasmines", "Painting Woman", etc.

The subject matters of his pictures in the 1940s were dominated by intimate scenes of Lake Balaton ("Vineyards", "The Countryside around Lake Balaton"). From the late 1940s onwards, his style became harsher and the colours colder. Still lives and and room interiors were combined with the view of the Danube or with that of an open window. After World War II, he was a leading personality in art life. From 1945 on, he was a teacher at the Art School. His graphic works and frescoes were significant, and he was also a remarkable writer. From 1937 onwards, he published essays on art in three volumes, his thoughts of an authobiographical nature were published in six volumes. With his sensitive and intellectual art rich in colours, he was not only a reformer of the traditions of the Nagybánya school, but one of the classic Hungarian painters.



Please send your comments, sign our guestbook and send a postcard.
Created and maintained by Emil Krén and Dániel Marx; sponsored by the T-Systems Hungary Ltd.