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Biography
Béla Nagy Abodi (Hungarian: Abodi Nagy Béla; 13 July 1918 – 9 December 2012) was Hungarian painter, and professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca.
He studied in the class of Camil Ressu at the Academia de Belle-Arte in Bucharest, and ended up then at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, as a student of István Szőnyi. He spent five years as a soldier in the Hungarian army, then as prisoner of war in Russia. He was a teacher at the Kolozsvár Academy of Fine Arts, actually University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca, Romania, then he worked as the head of the department and a master for generations of artists between 1949 and 1983 [2]. He has been a Kolozsvár resident until 2008, and lives since then in Budapest.
Béla Nagy Abodi is one of the most universal representatives of modern Hungarian and Romanian fine arts. He is a typically Hungarian and at the same time, a distinctively Transylvanian artist. He is a highly qualified, conscious artist, but at the same time a sensitive, true colourist, "a painter of the soul". His marvellous artwork bridges over several artistic periods and expressive systems of forms, though it constitutes a distinct entity: Abodi's dominant artistic character can be immediately traced in his diverse and always renewing oeuvre. He is a daring experimentalist, a persistent seeker who never strains after visual artifices or unnatural stylistic unity for his own sake. Abodi is the archetype of a professional and intellectual creator who is in possession of a complete range of professional tools and who is endowed with superior knowledge.His abundant lifework is a mine of deeply sympathizing, socially committed, objective-realist or dramatic and shockingly expressive depictions, at other times pictorial satires deploying the weapons of irony or even dead-on sarcasm, and the master-like composition of absurd and grotesque figurality. His later works are characterised by monumental pictorial architectures, genius "full orchestra" structures, figural-decorative compositions that are inspired by Hungarian folk art, and then geometrical-abstract or abstract-expressionist representations.
The pictures he painted at a later age are staggeringly clear artistic and deeply human conclusions: they are the pictures of an age, genius clinical aspects of the period.Abodi is mostly known as an artist who is wrestling with questions of human fate and as a painter of compositions that create master-like systems of pictures.
Besides his artistic activity, Abodi is a devoted public personality who has been fighting throughout his life for the survival of the Hungarian population of Transylvania – including their lawful community rights, uniquely rich culture and education at all levels. He did so as a leader of Hungarian social and professional organisations (vice-president of the Association of university and college students of Székely Land –SZEFHE after 1939, honorary president of the Barabás Miklós Céh (Miklós Barabás Guild) after 1990, etc.), as a university student (Bucharest, Budapest), as a university lecturer and leader, as a prestigious artist, and as a master of the written and spoken word.
His work of art can be best studied by reading Andor Bajor Bajor Andor's marvellous book, the Abodi monograph that has been published by Kriterion in 1986, as well as by consulting "Who is Who 2011", the thick catalogue of his collection exhibited in the Museum of Transylvanian Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca ( Kolozsvár) (Bánffy Palace) in 2004. Numerous data and visual information may be found about Abodi on the Internet. His portrait film, "The light of the future" has been broadcast several times on Duna Television [3].
Biography
- 1918 – On July 13 Bela Nagy Abodi was born in Székelyszenterzsebet, Eliseni, in Transylvania, in the former Kingdom of Hungary, Romania, in Harghita County, where his father, Dr. Nagy Géza hu:Nagy Géza (lelkész, 1887) - the historian of religion and the future theology professor -, served as a Reformist priest. His mother was Juliska Csoma. His brothers were Géza and István, his sister's name was Julianna.
- 1924, Fall. – The family moved to Magyarbikal Bicalatu (Kolozs County), Judetul Cluj, Romania. This is where he finished elementary school.
- 1928 – He finally settled down in Kolozsvár with his parents, where his father –a notable church historian and theologist – became professor of Reformist Theology (Kolozsvári Protestáns Teológiai Intézet).
- 1928-1936 – Studied at the Reformist Liceum of Kolozsvár. In the meantime, his writings were published in the Ifjú Erdély and Pásztortűz literary magazines.
- 1936, Fall. – Applied for the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest. He chose Camil Ressu to be his mentor.
- 1940, Spring. – 24 of his paintings were displayed in a group exhibition in Bucharest.
- 1940, Fall. – Abodi continued his studies at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, where his master was István Szőnyi. As a vice-president of SZEFHE, he organised the lives and fostered further education of Hungarian students in Transylvania.
- 1941, Spring. – Műbarát collective art-exhibition in Budapest, with members of the Miklós Barabás Guild. The ministry purchased his self-portrait.
- 1941 – He graduated from university. In the fall of 1941, won the first prize of a town competition in Kolozsvár. He became a member of the Miklós Barabás Guild.
- 1941-1942 – He acquired his Master's in Arts at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.
- Spring, 1942 – He married Éva Klára Teutsch, another Szőnyi-student at the college. They had four children in their marriage. Abodi became a teacher in the village of Kolozskovácsi in Transylvania right before he was enlisted in the army. In the fall, he was called to the army.
- 1943 – he participated in the group exhibition of the Miklós Barabás Guild.
- 1944, March. – Exhibition of the Milós Barabás Guild in the National Saloon in Budapest. In August he was part of a group exhibition of the Miklós Barabás Guild. In the fall of 1944, he was sent to serve as a wireless officer at the Russian front-lines. In 1945, he became a prisoner of war.
- 1948 – Returned home to Kolozsvár from Armenia, the Soviet Union and in the very same year, he had another exhibition, and undertook jobs as a graphic artist and book illustrator.
- 1948-1964 – Illustrated the books of several contemporary writers. Publishers commissioned him to draw portraits of many classical figures of Hungarian literature. Abodi Nagy Béla Hungarian Electronic Library
- 1948-1985 – State exhibitions of Hungarian fine arts. Exhibitions abroad: Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Syria, etc. [1]
- 1951 - 1957 - Head of the painting department of the Ion Andreescu Academy of Fine Arts in Kolozsvár until 1983.
- 1970 - 1983 – Head of the painting department of the Ion Andreescu Academy of Fine Arts in Kolozsvár until he retired in 1983.
- 1951 – He became a member of the Association of Fine Arts of the Romanian Socialist Republic at present the Romanian Fine Arts Union.
- 1954 – Awarded Romania State Award.
- 1955 – Awarded Romania State Award.
- 1956 – He made a study trip to Hungary and Bulgaria.
- 1958 – He participated in the 1st triennial of Socialist countries in Moscow.
- 1961-1962 – He made his monumental wall paintings/mural in the Student Culture Hall of Cluj-Napoca. In 1966, he made a study trip to Czechoslovakia and Germany.
- 1970-1978 – Study trips to the Soviet Union.
- 1972-1983 – Study trips to Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France and Italy.
- 1989 - After the Romanian revolution, he played an active part in the cultural and public life of Transylvania. He recreated the Miklós Barabás Guild with several colleagues, and became its honourable president.
- 1994 – His wife, Éva Klára Teutsch died on April 29, in Kolozsvár (Cluj).
- 1998 - Exhibition with a collection of his paintings in Budapest.
- 2004 - A retrospective exhibition organized of his artworks at the Museum of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca (Bánffy Palace).
- 2008 - Moves to Budapest with his son, Géza Nagy and his family. Geza Nagy is also a well known fine artist in Hungary.
Further details about the bibliography and artworks of Béla Abodi Nagy can be found in contemporary artistic encyclopedia that were published in Hungary and Romania, in publications about the fine arts of Transylvanian Hungarian and Romanian artists, in the Transylvanian Hungarian Who is Who volumes, in the Who is Who Hungary, in the monograph entitled Béla Nagy Abodi by Andor Bajor that was published by Kriterion in Bucharest in 1987, in the album entitled Abodi 2004, on artistic web portals as well as on the www.abodi.hu, www.abodi.org websites.
Additional information
- Abodi Nagy Béla website
- Abodi Gallery website
- http://www.whoiswho-verlag.ch/versionnew/ungarn/verlag/63.php?txt_Language=HU&real_str_PersID=49002531&uniqueID=2dac87a0-b26a-42d5-bc82-0bac21c9cc5d
- http://artportal.hu/lexikon/muveszek/abodi_nagy_bela
- http://www.kieselbach.hu/muvesz/abodi-nagy-bela_2901
- http://lexikon.kriterion.ro/szavak/4/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20121029092022/http://www.terminartors.com/artistprofile/Abodi_Nagy_Bela
- http://udvardy.adatbank.transindex.ro/index.php?action=nevmutato&nevmutato=Abodi%20Nagy%20B%C3%A9la
- Abodi Nagy Béla hivatalos Facebook oldala
- Abodi in the crosshairs of the Securitate
- Abodi a Securitate célkeresztjében
- Abodi în vizorul Securităţii