Nationality and Internationalism
Central European Art from the Böhm Collection

Gábor Ébli

Icon- and cover image:
Petre Abrudan : Street in Nagybánya ╱ 1935 ╱ oil on canvas ╱ 54 x 80 cm

His parents graduated from the Hungarian Medical University in Marosvásárhely and began collecting paintings in the 1960s. This was partly to preserve intellectual and material values, and partly out of a sense of national identity. They then moved to Nagyvárad, where their close friend, the painter Miklós Jakobovits, shaped their taste and took them to studios.

When they emigrated, they could only take part of their collection with them. In the mid-1980s, their life in Germany allowed them to expand their collection once again, and they were able to make affordable purchases at the reviving Hungarian auctions. By the time of the exhibition organized in Kempen in 1997 to mark the centenary of the Nagybánya artists’ colony (1896), the collection already included numerous items. It was at this point that József Böhm Jr. became actively involved in building the family collection, which he later took over completely and has been developing himself over the past decade.

In Germany, several other intellectuals who had emigrated from Transylvania – many of whom were also doctors, such as Zoltán Bokor, Lőrinc Czell, and Miklós Bay – assembled significant collections, got to know each other, and organized exhibitions and research together. The Siebenbürgisches Museum, located near Heilbronn, is an independent institution, and in 2004, a joint exhibition was organized in Freiberg from its collection and private collections. A year later, the city presented Dr. Böhm’s collection in a separate exhibition. In 2012, the Lindenau Museum in Saxony, known for its internationally renowned Gothic collection, exhibited the Böhm collection together with a catalogue.

This led to the first presentation in Hungary: in 2013, the collection was exhibited independently in Győr and Mosonmagyaróvár, while the German series continued (Passau, 2014). A new direction for the collection’s independent exhibitions began in 2019 with its return to Transylvania[2] In Sepsiszentgyörgy, the Transylvanian Art Center (with a catalogue), then in 2022 in Nagyvárad, the bishop’s palace, and since then, from Brassó to Nagykároly, more and more venues have been hosting the collection’s regularly updated selection.

[3] https://osas.hu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/OSAS_Bohm_Collection_small.pdf

[4] https://bibliamuzeum.com/nemzedekrol-nemzedekre-bohm-gyujtemeny/

Independent exhibitions in Hungary and Germany have also continued. In 2023, a new catalogue was published at two locations: the Déri Museum in Debrecen and the Vasarely Museum in Budapest. Thus, a total of four catalogues are now available on the collection; the Budapest catalogue can also be downloaded online.[3] Noteworthy among the exhibitions in Germany are the selection held in the Baroque castle serving as a museum in Königshain, near the Polish border (2022), and the selection held at the Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum in Ulm (2023).

One of the driving forces behind the wide range of exhibitions is the dynamically expanding contemporary section of the collection. Alongside classic modern works from Transylvania, József Böhm began collecting Hungarian and then international contemporary art, and today he consciously develops both sections. This is why the Bible Museum, which has undergone extensive renovation in recent years, decided to dedicate both its ground-floor and first-floor exhibition spaces to the collection in 2024, presenting a selection of Transylvanian works from 1917 to 1937 and a selection of contemporary international works.[4] This is the first exhibition of the collection in which modern and contemporary works are given equal weight, suggesting the continuity of art, whereas previous exhibitions always highlighted a particular period.

The main message of the interwar selection is its multi-ethnic character. Artists from different ethnic backgrounds worked in Nagybánya, and diversity is even more evident in other artistic centres in Transylvania. The collection includes Hungarian, Saxon and Romanian artists alike, and faithfully reflects the artistic life of Kolozsvár and Brassó. Instead of a Nagybánya-centered and Hungarian-focused artistic (mis)conception, it represents Transylvania in a broad sense as a geographically multi-centred and multicultural artistic scene. It is no coincidence that József Böhm originally wanted to be a historian, as the influence of his emigration to Germany is also evident, since from that perspective it was natural to treat diversity as a value. The collection is thus not only artistic but also cultural-historical.

This realization also underlies the international framing of contemporary material. The artists featured in the exhibition, who are initially mostly Hungarian, are presented in a much more exciting way when placed alongside similar processes in the Central European region. Exhibitions with this approach can appeal to an international audience, whereas a closed Hungarian contemporary material only affects a few.

[5] https://www.artisbusiness.hu/hu/hireink/a-muveszet-szamomra-nem-befektetes-hanem-szenvedely-718/

[6] https://kalikulturter.hu/egy-gyujtemeny-harom-helyszin-tihany-salfold-sumeg/

This multiple openness and constant visual self-development ensures that collecting is not an accumulation of works for József Böhm, but rather a source of intellectual inspiration.[5] From classical modernism to contemporary art, from Transylvania to today’s Polish, Czech, Swiss, and Austrian artists, from naturalistic representation to the geometric, minimalist compositions characteristic of the contemporary section – this is the continuous broadening of horizons over thirty years of collecting.

Thus, in the classic modern section, Sándor Ziffer and Petre Abrudan’s bold use of colour, and the psychologically powerful portrait paintings of Hans Eder and Fritz Kimm enter a dialogue with each other just as naturally as the sculptures of Ingo Glass and János Fajó, built from elementary forms, or the chromatic surface rhythms of István Haász and Klaus Schoen in the contemporary section. Outstanding artists of their age, such as Vilmos Perlrott Csaba and János Mattis Teutsch, are featured in the classical section, as are Dóra Maurer and Viktor Hulík among their contemporaries. György Jovián and László Lakner deserve special mention, as their advice played a decisive role in shaping the collection, and they are represented by such a large number of works that their art, either separately or together, can be comprehensively presented in a planned future exhibition.

Further works from the classic modern collection were displayed in the summer of 2024 in Sümeg, in the bishop’s palace, as the final stop in a three-part exhibition series in the Balaton Uplands.[6] In recent years, the collection has been deliberately exhibited at many locations with the undisguised intention of finding a permanent exhibition space for part of the collection. The northern shore of Lake Balaton could also provide a welcoming environment for the contemporary works in the collection, as László Vass and the Szöllősi-Nagy–Nemes couple’s similar, internationally inspired geometric abstract collection found a home in Veszprém and Balatonfüred, respectively. This type of solution, which serves the public interest, is also József Böhm’s intention, as it would allow the messages of his collection to be permanently publicized, and he is looking for a suitable location, either in Hungary or abroad, to house it.

The tour of Germany continues unabated. In 2024, Pirna in Saxony hosted a selection of Frauenbilder from the collection and a contemporary constructivist exhibition too. The latest exhibition of the collection can be seen now at the Liszt Institute in Stuttgart, focusing on works from the first half of the 20^th century, from Sándor Ziffer to Henri Nouveau.