Czárdás - Hungarian Dance

Inscribed in 2024 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the Csárdás is a Hungarian dance that is performed by couples consisting of a man and a woman, or, in some regions, of two women.

Multiple couples participate in the dance at the same time, forming one large or several smaller circles.

Each region has its own themes, gestures and figures, which are improvised according to well-known, established rules and patterns.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner | Czardas dancers, 1908 | Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Erzsébet Furmen | Pebble Artist

The Hungarian artist Erzsébet Furmen (Erzsébet Szilajka) brings stones to life in her charming Pebble Art.

She has loved stones since her childhood. She enthusiastically collected pebbles and made of them pieces of her life out like a mosaic.

Just as in her childhood, today Erzsébet can also spend a few hours on a gravel road or on a beach, choosing the most interesting, textured and ribbed stones for her work.

Now the artist tells stories about couples, family and love for animals.

Zsigmond István, 1964 | Digital watercolor painter

Zsigmond István is an Hungarian artist, born in Budapest and engaged in drawing, painting, literature and music for 25 years, from the early 1990s.

"Since the beginning of the 1990's I paint, draw and compose music too.

In 1995 I published my first book of poems titled "Trágár kocsisok bakján" ("On the dickey seats of nasty dickey's").

I am the founding member of the X-Art and the Poly art association and also the SZAK Studio art company".

Nikoletta Kiraly, 1978 | Palette knife painter

Nikoletta Király was born in Debrecen, Hungary. Her drawing talent was recognised at a very early age.

She moved near Lake Balaton with her family in her elementary school years and finished her high school education in Keszthely.

During these years she became the student of the painter Eörs Dókus, who started her on the rocky journey of oil painting.

Gulyás László, 1960 | Le ballerine

Nato a Budapest, il pittore ungherese Laszlo Gulyas si è diplomato all'Accademia di Belle Arti ed Arti Applicate con una laurea in grafica pubblicitaria e dal 1983 al 1987 è stato studente presso il College of Fine Arts, specializzandosi in riproduzione grafica.

Laszlo ha continuato i suoi studi come studente dell'Accademia di Belle Arti tra il 1983-il 1987.

L'artista ha sviluppato il suo mondo individuale di immagini e ha acquisito le tecniche pittoriche dei primi maestri della pittura sotto l'influenza dell'arte universale di Rembrandt.

Csaba Markus, 1953

Csaba Markus is a Hungarian-American artist, painter, sculptor and publisher. As an artist, he primarily works in the field of printmaking, with a particular focus on etching and serigraphy.

His work also includes oil painting, drawing, glass art, photography and sculpture. Markus's painting titled "Pure Love" has been selected as one of the World's 10 most sensual paintings by Toronto Sun newspaper.

Life and work

Markus was born in Budapest, Hungary.

His mother is Szőllős Erzsébet and father Károly Márkus. His childhood in Hungary, where he frequented museums, is an influence on his work.

He is also influenced by avant-garde art and abstraction.

Markus began his career as a sculptor. At the age of fourteen, he and his work were featured on international public television. He became increasingly frustrated with teachers and the confines of communism, realizing his Renaissance-inspired emphasis on the individual conflicted with Hungarian communist beliefs.

Gulyás László, 1960 | Figurative painter

Gulyás László was born in Budapest, Hungary. He graduated at the Academy of Fine and Applied Arts, where he specialised in graphic design. They he continued his studies as a student of the Academy of Fine Arts between 1983-1987.

He has been member of the National Society of Hungarian Artists since 1987.

The artist developed his individual world of images and acquired the painting techniques of the early masters of painting under the influence of the universal art of Rembrandt. This is what makes him distinct form his contemporaries.

Franz Liszt: "Truth is a great flirt"

• Music embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words.
• I conclude that the Wagnerian operas which are already in the repertoire, and other master works as well, stand in no further need of my services.
• I did not compose my work as one might put on a church vestment… rather it sprung from the truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt it since my childhood.
• I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.
• I foster a sorrowful conception of affection. Make no sacrifices.
• In Hungary all native music, in its origin, is divided naturally into melody destined for song or melody for the dance.
• Inspiration is enough to give expression to the tone in singing, especially when the song is without words.
• It is impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with nature than that of the Gypsy.
• It is my fervent wish and my greatest ambition to leave a work with a few useful instructions for the pianists after me.

Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano, 1840 (detail) by Josef Danhauser ▪ Alte Nationalgalerie ▪

Hungarian Art History and Sitemap

Miklós Ligeti | Impressionist /Realist sculptor

Hungarian art has been both stunted and spurred on by pivotal historical events.

King Stephen’s conversion to Catholicism brought Romanesque and Gothic art and architecture, while the Turkish occupation nipped Hungary’s Renaissance in the bud.

The Habsburgs opened the doors wide to baroque influences. The arts thrived under the Dual Monarchy, through Trianon and even under fascism. Under communism much money was spent on classical music and 'correct' theatre. Under current economic conditions funding for the arts is being slashed.

Mihály Von Munkácsy | Genre painter

Mihály Von Munkácsy (1844-1900), Hungarian painter, whose real name was Michael (Miska) Leo Lieb, was the third son of Michael Lieb, a collector of salt-tax in Munkács, Hungary, and of Cäcilia Röck.

He was born in that town on the 20th of February 1844. In 1848 his father was arrested at Miskolcz for complicity in the Hungarian revolution, and died shortly after his release; a little earlier he had also lost his mother, and became dependent upon the charity of relations, of whom an uncle, Röck, became mainly responsible for his maintenance and education.

Charles Roka (1912-1999) | Genre painter

Charles Roka (Róka Károly) was a Hungarian painter🎨 living in Norway whose name became synonymous with an excess of artistic kitsch.

Roka was born in Hungary in 1912. After he finished his studies on the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest he went on a European journey. In 1937 he finally settled in Norway, and lived in Bærum, outside Oslo until his death.

Emerico Tóth, 1970 | Abstract painter

Imre Tóth is an Hungarian painter. "My name Imre Tóth, artist name Emerico. My art is abstract, realistic, modern, sometime surreal, created in my own style and vision that most closely leans towards the expressionist and impressionist generic descriptions of styles.

There is no commitment towards theme and style. There is no defined path, only the love of painting. It is an ever-learning and experimenting spirit".

Istvan Sàndorfi | Hyper-Surrealist painter

István Sándorfi (1948-2007) also known as Étienne Sandorfi, was a naturalised French painter of Hungarian origin.

He received his formal art education at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and at École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris.

He mastered what art critics now term hyperrealism. But he did so with his very own blend of Surreal elements.

François Gall (1912-1987) | Ballet dancers

Hungarian by birth - born in Kolozsvar in the former region of Transylvania - François Gall (1912-1987) became an impressionist painter🎨 in the pure French tradition after he moved to Paris in 1936.

He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rome while working to secure a living.

The artist participated in various Salon exhibitions in Paris.

Support came in 1939 when the Hungarian government awarded🎨 Gall with a scholarship. Received the Medaille🎨 de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris in 1974.

Appointed Chevalier dans l’Odre des Arts des Lettres in 1976.

In 1963, he was honored with the Francis Smith Prize🎨.

François Gall | Impressionist painter

François Gall (22 March 1912, Hungary - 9 December 1987, France) was an Hungarian-born French🎨 modern impressionist painter.

François Gall was born "Ferenc Erdelyi Gall" in 1912 in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj Napoca).

In 1936, at age 24 years, he moved to Paris.

Early in 1939, Gall returned to Kolosvàr to attend the bedside of his dying father. Once there, he could not return to France as the declaration of war was imminent.

Gall's war time years were finished in Wels, Austria where he was a medic.

Mihaly Zichy | Romantic painter

Mihály Zichy (15 October 1827 in Zala, Kingdom of Hungary - 28 February 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist.

Mihály Zichy was a significant representative of Hungarian romantic painting.

During his law studies in Pest from 1842, he attended Jakab Marastoni's school as well.

In Vienna he was Waldmüller's pupil in 1844. "Lifeboat", his first major work, comes from this time.

On Waldmüller's recommendation, he became an art teacher in St. Petersburg.

He swore allegiance to freedom by painting the portrait of Lajos Batthyány, the first Hungarian prime minister, in 1849.

Pal Fried | Vintage style Figurative painter

Pál Fried (1893-1976), Hungarian-born American painter⏭, a well-known Hungarian painter of the 20th century whose art is mostly associated with portraits of high society Parisian women, ballerinas, Oriental and western scenes, seascapes, primary working with oil and pastels, experimenting with light and movement in his work.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Fried see:

• Pal Fried | La Belle Époque | Vintage figurative painter ➻
• Pal Fried | Ballet Dancers ➻

Jozsef Rippl Ronai | Post-Impressionist painter

Jozsef Rippl-Ronai (1861-1927) was an Hungarian painter, known for working in the Les Nabis style.

He first introduced modern artistic movements in the Hungarian art.

He was born in Kaposvár. After his studies at the High School there, he went to study in Budapest, where he obtained a degree in pharmacology.

In 1884 he traveled to Munich to study painting at the Academy.

Two years later he obtained a grant which enabled him to move to Paris and study with Munkácsy, the most important Hungarian realist painter.

Istvan Sàndorfi | Drawing

István Sándorfi was born in Budapest in 1948 and died in 2007. His father was director of the American company, IBM, in Hungary.

Because of this association he served five years in Stalinist prisons during the Communist regime and his family was deported to an isolated Hungarian village.

At the time of the 1956 uprising the Sandorfi family fled the country and became expatriates, first in Germany, then in France.

Greatly affected by the violence of the revolution and by the aberration of political systems in general, Istvan took refuge in drawing, and then, at the age of 12, in oil painting.

Pal Fried | Ballet Dancers

The following collection include the Ballet dancer paintings by Hungarian-born American painter* Pál Fried (1893-1976).

He was heavily influenced by the French impressionist school of Renoir and Degas.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Fried see:

• Pal Fried | La Belle Époque | Vintage figurative painter ➻
• Pal Fried | Vintage style Figurative painter ➻