Background
Béla Czóbel was born to a Jewish-Hungarian family in Budapest in 1883.
In 1904, like many other young artists from Hungary, he went to Paris for additional study; he attended the Académie Julian as a pupil of Jean Paul Laurens.
Béla Czóbel was born to a Jewish-Hungarian family in Budapest in 1883.
In 1904, like many other young artists from Hungary, he went to Paris for additional study. He attended the Académie Julian as a pupil of Jean Paul Laurens.
They were known for introducing Post-Impressionist styles into Hungary, in addition to Fauvism, Cubism and Expressionism. He became a student of Béla Iványi-Grünwald in the Nagybánya free school, held in an artists" colony in what is now Baia Mare, Romania. His style at first reflected the principles of naturalism of the Nagybánya school.
Returning to Budapest, Czóbel joined other young painters first known as the "Neos", for striking out in directions different from the Nagybánya traditions.
By 1909 they organized as The Eight. They had their first exhibit, New Pictures, that year, their first as The Eight in 1911.
The members included the leader Károly Kernstok, Róbert Berény, Dezsõ Czigány, Odon Márffy, Dezső Orbán, Bertalan Pór, and Lajos Tihanyi. Czóbel was interviewed by Gelett Burgess, prior to the publication of The Wild Men of Paris, in Architectural Record, May 1910.
A painting by Czóbel, Portrait de Femme, and a photograph of the artist were reproduced in the publication, along with a text about the artists work.
During the First World War, Czóbel went to the Netherlands, where he continued to work in fauvist style. He also spent time in Berlin, where he became part of the New Secession movement. From 1925-1939, Czóbel settled in Paris, where he had a studio in Montparnasse.
After the war, he exhibited and worked both in Budapest and Paris.
He finally returned to Hungary for good in 1965. 1991-1992, Standing in the Storm: The Hungarian Avant-Garde from 1908-1930, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Major 21st-century exhibits in Europe have commemorated the Fauvists and the influence of The Eight in Hungary.
2006, Hungarian Fauves from Paris to Nagybánya, 1904-1914, 21 March—30 July 2006, Hungarian National Gallery
2010, A Nyolcak (The Eight): A Centenary Exhibition, 10 December 2010 - 27 March 2011, Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs
2012, The Eight. Hungary"s Highway in the Modern (Die Acht Ungarns Highway in die Moderne), 12 September - 2 December 2012, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Wien, collaboration with Museum of Fine Arts and Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest.
Béla Czóbel Museum was established in Szentendre, Hungary, where he often worked.
Bank of the Seine in Paris
1925Boy Holding a Ball
1916Coastal View with Barges
1930Girl by the Window with Flower
1904Girl with Red Shawl
1934In the Atelier
1922Large Still-life with Fruits
1929Madonna
1937Man with Straw Hat
1906Mask and Mandolin
1928Masks
1929Muse
1930Nude with Red Turban
1926Still-life in Yellow
1960Large Still-life with Fruits
1929Street in Southern France
1935Szentendre
1964Vase on a Chair (Italian Jar)
1918Venus of Szentendre
1968View of a Street at Hatvan
1937