9. Béni and Noémi Ferenczy

Those Hungarian sculptors who rejected academism had two choices. Pál Pátzay, the member of the Gresham circle chose the neoclassicism. In contrast, Béni Ferenczy followed the French artist, Maillol, who was looking for the ancient rules of plastics and the antique shapes that were present inside the forms of modern life.

Even though Béni Ferenczy took part in the discussions at the coffeehouse only after 1936, his mature period may also be included here, on account of his affinity to the Gresham circle's artistic ideas and his close personal friendship with the members. After a cubist-expressionistic beginning phase, he arrived to a more classical way of seeing things. He created sculptures with emphatically closed plastic masses that didn't enter into relationship with the surrounding space. He characterized his own art as "new Hellenism". He grew more and more interested in the problems risen by Greek sculpture: the possibilities of the harmonic rendering of the motion and of the conveying of the human body plainly, without any disturbing movements. His most frequent theme was the female body. His crouching, wiping figurines reflect an almost paradisiacal form of life: Bather, Walking Nude, Woman with raised Arms, Girl with Bathing Wrap.

Considering her view of life, which is radiating harmony and equilibrium and the tendency to prevail the human element, Noémi Ferenczy could be considered a representative of the post-Nagybánya circle. Her intense colours may be compared to that of Aurél Bernáth és István Szőnyi. Beside these, she is strongly attached to Nagybánya. Being the daughter of Károly Ferenczy, she learned to see there and her scale of values was formed there. Nevertheless, while the art of those belonging to post-Nagybánya circle was the art of the lonely self, Noémi Ferenczy was looking for the equality of human communities, the general rules, the objectivity and adequate artistical ways to express this. Her tapestries express a sort of mystical desire of community. Her permanent theme is the male or female figure living and working in pantheistic harmony with nature (collecting wood, digging etc.). Work meant to her the base of human association, a symbol of community. This view of life is suggested by almost each of her naive, slightly stylized compositions: Woman bringing Brushwood.