"Ferdinand Hodler - A Symbolist Vision" exhibition is on at the Szépmuveszeti. Been running since September. Definitely worth a see.Hodler is a Swiss painter who was active from mid-1800s through the First World War. He developed Parallelism - noteable for its iconic symmetry of symbolic human forms, and fiddling about with how to render a subject's different spatial planes in paint on canvas.
Budapest is a perfect city to display this work, as Hodler was active as an artist during the exact time span as the golden age of this city. While he wasn't part of the Vienna Secession - the art movement that left such a stamp on much of Budapest's classic architectural style - his aesthetic seemed to evolve along similar lines to that of Klimt, Moser and even the decorative art of Tiffany.
Let me say this about the Szépmuveszeti. I wouldn't try to pass myself off as some kind of authority on the art galleries of the world, but I have been to heavies such as: The Louvre, The Musee d'Orsay, NYC's Metropolitan, San Francisco's De Young, LACMA in Los Angeles, and Vienna's Kunsthistorisches, to give a short list. And I still find the Szépmuveszeti compares well to any of the above.
There, I said it. Art snobs out there are free to put me down for it by saying I must have Budapest on the brain or something. They're probably right.
