I've just come back from viewing the new show at the RA, which certainly comes as a welcome addition to the summer exhibition scene here in London. As you've probably spotted, we've hung a good number of Eastern European pictures to coincide with this show, so I was itching to get in and look around. On the whole, it is a fantastic show - I am thrilled, and quietly amazed, that the RA have devoted the Sackler galleries to photography like this. Here's hoping for a few more. Certainly the artists in the exhibition are worthy of the prestige that the RA brings.
The underlying theme of the show, and the subject of curator, Colin Ford's essay in the catalogue, is an attempt to explain the curious success of Hungarian photographers between about 1920 and 1950. Political events, wars, anti-semiticism and the pull of the west drew many Hungarian photographers out of their native land to Berlin, Paris and eventually New York, where they began to dominate the industry. The major names in the show are familiar - Brassai, Capa, Kertesz, Moholy-Nagy and Munkasci - and all certainly managed to make major contributions to the canon of 20th century photography. However, the Hungarian connection seems hard to explain in terms of imagery - in fact, the large groups of work by each of these five photographers showed how very different they were from each other, and how in turn they managed to influence a wide variety of different photographic genres, from photojournalism to photo-surrealism. Stylistically, there are links - all used, at some point, (with the exception of Robert Capa) the acute angles and artful composition that dominated photography and other art-forms across Europe at the time, and Kertesz and Brassai both jostled for position as photographers of the Parisian city-scape. However, despite a few common threads, the show demonstrated, in fact, how very idiosyncratic and brilliant each of the big names were as individual photographers. This, for me, was the major success of the exhibition. I loved seeing Brassai's extraordinary night-shots of Paris again, Kertesz's wierd, poetic visions of Paris and New York, Moholy-Nagy's clever, surreal eye and strong sense of graphic design, Munkasci's artful yet energetic pictures, and Capa's extraordinary images of war. Yes, they all came from a similar place, and certainly the seeds of modern photojournalism took root in Hungary, but explanation didn't seem seem terribly important, having enjoyed such a variety of wonderful, eclectic images. Actually it seemed like trying to make something out of nothing. It was satisfying enough to simply enjoy their success, without explaining it in terms of nation.
There are a few rather uninteresting pictures, that perhaps the show could have done without - Jozsef Pesci was particularly dull in such vivacious company. However, there were also some wonderful discoveries in the lesser known photographers - Cornel Capa (Robert's elder brother (quite well known actually!)), Eva Besnyo's intriguing pictures of village life, Karoly Besnyo, and an absolutely stunning picture by Angelo called 'Airport Steps'. The last room is the only real low-point, as more recent Hungarian photography is given a cursory glance that neither shows it off well, nor complements the work in the previous rooms.
In all, this is an excellent exhibition. It is delightful to see familiar images hung with their lesser-known cousins, and it certainly goes a long way in proving the importance and success of Hungarian photography during this period. You never really get much of an answer about WHY Hungary produced such wonderful photographers, but in the end it doesn't really matter - just be glad that it did.
