Progress in Pictures
By Rebecca Park, Contributor
Kata Sugár, Girl Herding Geese, 1936, gelatine silver
(courtesy of Hungarian Museum of Photography)
As part of “Extremely Hungary,” a yearlong festival in New York and DC devoted to Hungarian culture and organized by the Hungarian Cultural Center, the National Museum of Women in the Arts is currently hosting the exhibit “Picturing Progress: Hungarian Women Photographers, 1900-1945. The show offers a unique blend of a wide variety of genres—from industrial landscapes to social realist depictions of peasant life—from 21 different artists, united in sex and ethnicity.
The nearly half century the exhibit covers proved to not only be a significant period politically, but also an important stage in the growth of the art of photography in Hungary. Once defined solely as a technical profession, the perception of the medium as a form of art evolved slower in Hungary than in the nations where it first developed, such as France and England. A paper like Woman and Society could, in 1908, suggest photography as a reasonable trade for a newly urban female population. Training abroad, the most exceptional of these women artists brought back to Hungary the methods and philosophy of Western art photography, playing a significant role in early 20th century Hungarian culture.
At the center of this shifting conception of photography is Olga Máté, an artist whose long career spans much of the exhibit’s historical time frame. From charming portraits of mothers and children to contemplative still life advertisements, her work always maintains the same basic elements, including a dedication to calculated composition and a willingness to experiment with the medium. Her work in bromoil print, a photographic process developed at the time to give images a light, painterly aspect, belies the feminine soft touch with portraits of strong, independent women. Máté’s photography studio served not only as a home base for her own revolutionary artistic activity, but also as a welcoming starting point for young artists.
Kata Kálmán, Smoking Woman, 1935, gelatine silver
(courtesy of Hungarian Museum of Photography)
Other artists emerge as power players, even without the artistic range that Máté displays. Kata Kálmán broke new ground with her social realist photography, combining art and journalism to comment on the lives of women, children and the poor. Subjects vary, and a little-represented artist like Jolán Vadas can make a big impact by addressing certain issues. Her Window-dressing (c. 1938), an examination of the construction of cultural female depictions, energetically contributes to the show through its intersection of two of the exhibit’s main themes: women and image.
“Picturing Progress” opens up all kinds of dialogue. About gender, about what constitutes art, about the role and place of photography in a historical narrative. And when the talking dies down, the power of the image lives on.
Return to Main Menu |
