Artists

André Kertész

Press release

Opening on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 6 pm Greetings by Orsolya KŐRÖSI Managing Director, Capa Center Edina SÓSNÉ MICHÉLISZ Mayor, Szigetbecse Opening remarks by Máté VINCZE Deputy State Secretary for Public Collections and Cultural Development, Ministry of Culture and Innovation Curated by Katalin KOPIN art historian, Capa Center The Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center and the Municipality of Szigetbecse cordially invites you and your friends to the opening of its upcoming exhibition. André Kertész, who was born in Budapest, is one of the most important figures in the history of photography. In a career spanning more than seventy years and three countries (Hungary, France and the United States), Kertész created a visual language of modernist photography that has been a point of reference and a source of inspiration for generations. With an insightful gaze and determination, he framed his powerful visions into images, creating photographs that are characterized by a deep understanding of the human soul and a recognition of the beauty inherent in everyday life. In the last year of his life, as an expression of his deep feelings for the defining location of his childhood, he donated 120 carefully selected, original, signed photographs to Szigetbecse, a village south of Budapest. Whilst selecting, he made certain to include not only the best-known masterpieces that have stood the test of time, but also images that have more relevance for Hungarian audiences, creating a collection that represents all the important periods of his oeuvre. Our new permanent exhibition presents a selection of these images and the stories behind them. The backbone of this exhibition comes from the photos gifted to Szigetbecse, which are presented in six thematic units: Heartbeats, The War Path, The Story of My Wife, From Budapest Studios to Paris Ateliers, Metamorphosis of the Body and The Enigmatic Image. On the one hand, the sections follow the chronology of Kertész's journey through life, and on the other, they provide a deeper insight into the life events, relationships and artistic visions that motivated and defined the artist, through selected situations, persons, motifs or events. The core material, which consists of artist's prints, is complemented by digital prints from glass-plate negatives selected from the Kertész Archives—the artist's gift to the French state—courtesy of the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie. A print was selected for the exhibition if we believed it could add nuance to the sequences of well-known, iconic images—if they could act as missing links, as it were, that can shed light on the artist's creative method, offer a more detailed view of some important moment of his life, or point to the precedent or later life of an image. Another focus of the exhibition is the role of the visual arts in André Kertész's life, so we have included a few artworks that can be linked to his life and art. We also present three postcards from his late correspondence with his wife. Finally, to evoke his home, we also exhibit some distinctive items from the personal effects he gifted to Szigetbecse. These layers are hoped to generate a sense of how his long career developed, what the broader contexts of his iconic images were, and where the roots of his thinking and philosophy of life originated.