Bela Czobel

Key facts

Lived

1883–1976, Hungarian^[1]

Movement

• Expressionism

^[1]

Works held in

3 museums

Wikipedia

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• What is Bela Czobel known for?+

  Béla Czóbel is known for co-founding The Eight (A Nyolcak) in Hungary in 1910^[1]. This group introduced Post-Impressionist approaches to the Hungarian^[1] public. He was also featured in Gelett Burgess's essay "The Wild Men of Paris".
• What is Bela Czobel's most famous work?+

  It is difficult to name Bela Czobel's single "most famous work" definitively, as fame is subjective and varies over time. However, several of his pieces have received attention and acclaim. Czobel is known for his contributions to the Fauvist and Expressionist movements early in his career. He developed a personal style characterised by bold colours and expressive brushwork. He was part of the group of Hungarian^[1] artists associated with the Fauves in Paris. Some of his important works include paintings from his early, more radical period, as well as portraits and nudes. Later in his career, he moved away from the avant-garde, and his earlier works are often considered his most significant. Without specific data on sales, exhibition attendance, or critical reception for individual works, it is impossible to determine which piece is definitively the "most famous".
• What should I know about Bela Czobel's prints?+

  Bela Czobel's prints, like those of many artists, exist within a complex market. Understanding some basic principles will assist your appreciation. An original print is conceived as a print, made solely as a print, and usually produced in a numbered edition signed by the artist. Each impression is created individually from a plate, stone, screen, or block. Numbering (for example, 12/25) is a recent convention that accounts for the total number of prints in the edition. Early prints were often unsigned. A reproduction is a copy of a work initially created in another medium, often produced via photomechanical means. Numbering or signing a reproduction does not make it an original print. Since the late nineteenth century, prints have increasingly been viewed as a major artistic medium. Artists began signing their prints to distinguish them from reproductions, attesting to their authenticity and approval. Limiting editions and numbering them provides quality control and influences the price based on market availability.
• What style or movement did Bela Czobel belong to?+

  Bela Czobel was associated with Expressionism^[1], although he engaged with various other movements during his career. He stated that he learned something from each "-ism" without fully joining any single one. Expressionism, which arose primarily in Germany and Austria in the early 20th century, valued the subjective and emotional qualities of art. Expressionist artists moved further away from traditional representation of reality than movements such as Post-Impressionism. They were influenced by artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Edvard Munch, as well as African and Oceanic art. Expressionism encompassed different groups and styles. Die Brücke (The Bridge), active from 1905^[1] to 1913, used emotion-charged imagery and simplified forms to convey feelings of alienation and anxiety. Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), founded in 1911, sought to express spiritual states through abstract forms.
• What techniques or materials did Bela Czobel use?+

  Bela Czobel's artistic techniques involved a range of materials and approaches. One notable method was painting on photographic substrates, a practice that gained traction in the late nineteenth century. This involved applying paints, often oils, onto photographic images. Earlier techniques also suggested using transparent and covering colours made from dry powdered pigments mixed with albumin, ammonium carbonate, glycerine, liquid ammonia, and water. Aniline dyes, dissolved in alcohol and applied to the reverse of the image, were another option. For photographs on paper, gelatin was recommended as a base layer for oils, while shellac was suggested for watercolours and pastels. In the realm of more modern techniques, photomontage, a type of collage involving the arrangement and gluing of photographs or other illustrative material onto a surface, also featured in the period. Artists explored experimental photographic procedures, moving beyond traditional painting to combine different media and challenge conventional artistic boundaries.
• What was Bela Czobel known for?+

  Bela Czobel was a Hungarian^[1] artist associated with several modern movements. He is primarily known as an Expressionist. Expressionism^[1], which dominated German art from 1905^[1] to 1930, valued the expression of the artist's feelings over realistic depictions. Czobel's career saw him associated with various artistic "-isms". However, he claimed not to have fully joined any single one. Hungarian Expressionism had antecedents in the early 20th-century periodical *Nyugat* (West). This publication cultivated subjectivism, modern tensions, stylised forms, and a desire to portray and change Hungarian society. Expressionism in Hungary combined Futurist and Expressionist doctrines. This synthesis aimed to open new paths, even in politics, and called for participation in economic and social forces. The Hungarian variant of Expressionism, known as Activism, developed a new attitude and creative method in service of a political programme.
• When did Bela Czobel live and work?+

  Bela Czobel was born in Budapest, Hungary, on 4 September 1883^[1]. He died there in 1976^[1]. Czobel began his artistic studies in 1902^[1] at the Free School of Simon Hollósy in Munich, where he encountered Jules Pascin, Walter Bondy, and Peter Biró. By 1903, he was studying at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1904, Czobel, along with other Hungarian^[1] artists, became a founding member of the Fauvist group, Les Huit (The Eight). From 1905 to 1906, he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne, contributing to the development of modern Hungarian painting. Between 1914 and 1919, Czobel lived in Bergen, Norway, then returned to Budapest. Later, he lived in Berlin from 1925 to 1939, then relocated again to Paris. He remained there until 1960, when he returned to Hungary.
• Where can I see Bela Czobel's work?+

  Bela Czobel's artworks can be viewed in a number of collections. European museums holding his works include the Kunstmuseum in Basle; the Kunstmuseum and Gottfried Keller Stiftung, both in Berne; the Petit Palais in Geneva; and the Kunsthaus in Zurich. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection also holds works by Czobel. Other collections include those of M. Feilchenfeldt, Louis Franck, Samuel Josefowitz, Dr Jacques Koerfer, and the Staechelin Foundation. Other museums that may hold Czobel's work include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. In the UK, Czobel's pieces may be viewed at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, the Manchester Art Gallery, the National Museums of Scotland, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
• Where was Bela Czobel from?+

  Bela Czobel, originally named Bela Blau, was born in 1910^[1] in Bratislava, a city on the Danube River. At the time of his birth, Bratislava was part of the Austro-Hungarian^[1] Empire; today, it is the capital of Slovakia. Czobel came from a Jewish family and had to queue for bread and milk from the age of five. He received his schooling in both German and Hungarian. At sixteen, he began working as a salesman in a textile business. In 1937, Czobel married Irma, and they moved to Žilina, where their son, Erwin, was born. Czobel worked for the photographic company Agfa for several years. In 1938, he was dismissed due to his Jewish background. Later, the Hlinka Guard evicted him, his family, and his mother-in-law from their apartment as part of the Slovak government’s Aryanization policy.
• Who did Bela Czobel influence?+

  It is difficult to identify specific artists who were directly influenced by Bela Czobel. One source notes that the art world is poisoned by battles between programmes, with too much false philosophising, which swallows up real feelings and unencumbered relations to the visible. This suggests that artists may be more influenced by ideas and movements than by individual painters. Another passage mentions Henry Lee McFee, a proponent of Formalist Realism, who attracted a large following of artists. One of these was Edna Reindel, who was affected by his Cézannesque compositions of the 1930s. McFee also taught Robert Bentley Schaad at Scripps College, inspiring a generation of Southern California artists. Schaad produced a primer for the "serious young art student" in 1962^[1], which was illustrated with his compositional and technical solutions, and those of fellow Southern California artists. Another artist, Frank J. Gavencky, anticipates the 1970s work of Photorealist painters like Richard Estes and Robert Bechtle.
• Who influenced Bela Czobel?+

  Bela Czobel's artistic development involved several influences. Around the turn of the century, the reductive techniques of woodcut and lyric poetry, along with calligraphy, provided inspiration for abstract art. Adolf Holzel, a leader of the Neu-Dacbau school, experimented with the abstract potential of calligraphy, which he termed "abstract ornaments". Emil Nolde, who studied with Holzel in 1899^[1], attempted to imitate his teacher's inventions. Holzel's work, including his stylised, expressive paintings such as Birches on the Moor (1902), was exhibited regularly and known in artistic circles. Other artists also appeared important to young artists at this time. According to László Moholy-Nagy, Vincent van Gogh's use of curves and shapes carried a rich message. Moholy-Nagy also found Edvard Munch, Lojos Tihanyi, Oscar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, and Franz Marc "decipherable", as they shifted importance to their interpretive power, using unusual combinations of lines to express their problems, social consciousness, and individual happinesses.
• Who was Bela Czobel?+

  Béla Czóbel was a Hungarian^[1] painter who spent much of his career at the centre of European modernism. Born in Budapest, he trained at Nagybánya artists' colony and Académie Julian before settling in Paris in 1904^[1]. Bela Czobel died in Budapest in 1976^[1] at the age of 92.