János Tornyai Museum

Tornyai János Museum (Tornyai János Museum and Cultural Center) (Hódmezővásárhely, Dr. Rapcsák András Street 16–18., founded 1904–1905.)

Establishment

At the beginning of the 20th century, distinguished visual artists worked in Hódmezővásárhely, János Tornyai, Béla Endre, Gyula Rudnay. In connection with practicing their own art they collected local folk art values together with writer and folklorist Lajos Kiss. Kiss Gyula was encouraged to found a museum. Luck also favored them; in the town developing through the grain conjuncture, an industrial and agricultural exhibition was organized in 1904. They entrusted János Tornyai with furnishing a lounge for the guests, arranging the room with folk art objects (painted furniture, ceramics, embroidery). After the industrial fair ended they regretted having to discontinue the lounge; Tornyai suggested to the city leaders that the furnishings be requested as gifts from the owners, and if that was not possible, to purchase them and establish a museum. The city leadership accepted his proposal, and thus the Hódmezővásárhely museum was formed in 1904–1905, with Lajos Kiss becoming its director.

History of the collection

Through the diligent work of Lajos Kiss, the museum’s collection grew by donations and purchases, constantly outgrowing its previous location, requiring ever larger premises to be rented for the collection. In 1912 the industrious folklorist Lajos Kiss received a better offer from the Jósa András Museum and moved to Nyíregyháza. This was already a warning sign for the city; in 1914, with state support, they purchased the multi‑storey house of Imre József for the museum. The storage and preservation of the museum’s collection were solved, but with Lajos Kiss’s departure the momentum of collecting museum objects broke. In secondary and tertiary positions, small municipal officials were entrusted with the museum’s management.

Their first professional ethnographic exhibition was opened to the public in 1928. Their ethnographic collection is rich in local folk art works. From the 18th century, wooden market-town furniture carvings and colorful paintings from Vásárhely gained fame, from the 19th century the pottery craft flourished in the city, and in the second half of the 19th century 240 “bowl” masters worked in Hódmezővásárhely. The Transylvanian embroidery pieces from Hódmezővásárhely also have a unique character, of which the wool‑embroidered aprons are the best known.

A new impetus for the museum’s development was given by the series of archaeological excavations lasting one and a half decades (1929–1944) in the Hódmezővásárhely region, led by archaeologist and university professor János Banner. The city provided 1000 pengő for the work. The archaeological research sites: Nagysziget, Kökénydomb, Szalkahát, Kotac‑part, Nagyrét, Gorzsa. From these sites came the finds that amount to about 40 000 museum objects of the Hungarian Neolithic. The greatest concentration of rural Neolithic (New Stone Age) material is found here. Among the values of universal culture they can claim the Kökénydomb Venus, the Gorzsa Venus statue, a Neolithic altar and the Szikánc gold find. The 1400‑piece Gorzsa gold find was uncovered in 1963 and was presented to the public in a separate exhibition at that time.

In 1934 a part of the city intelligentsia founded the János Tornyai Society and celebrated the 50th anniversary of János Tornyai's creative work, organizing a collective exhibition in his honor. The city leadership voted a life annuity of 100 pengő for the elderly master. János Tornyai was so moved by his hometown's gestures that he bequeathed his own paintings and graphics to the museum, about 400 paintings and 400 graphics; today this legacy forms the basis of the fine arts collection.

The museum also has a collection rich in local historical museum objects, with material memories of cultural life, guilds, and documents of agrarian movements.

During the Second World War the museum was not damaged, but after the war the SZDP moved into the museum building, and the museum's material was quickly and unprofessionally moved to the Nagy Ernő house on Kálvin Square. Many things were broken, some may have been lost. A few years later the SZDP ceased to exist, and the museum moved back to its old location, and through nationalizations also managed to acquire a neighboring house, the Korda (Klein) house, and the library also moved to a separate building. Conditions improved, and from 1 February 1946 the president of the János Tornyai Society, poet Miklós Galyasi (1903–1974), was appointed director. Miklós Galyasi brought excellent specialists to his side: archaeologist József Korek (1928–1992), folklorist Lajos Kiss, art historian Éva Bodnár (1927–1994). At the suggestion of museum director Miklós Galyasi, the Vasarhely museum took the name János Tornyai in 1951.

The initiator of the regularly held Vasarhelyi Autumn Exhibition since 1954 was György Galyasi, together with resident artists, painters István Kurucz D. and Gyula Almási, and sculptor István Szabó. Thanks to Galyasi's activity, notable Vasarhelyi artists returned to the city (József Németh, Gyula Kajári, Ferenc Szalay, Gyula Végvári, János Fekete). The Vasarhelyi Autumn Exhibition mainly provided a presentation opportunity for local visual artists, but this was not strictly applied; Béla Kondor could also exhibit there, as he could not exhibit in Budapest in the 1950s. Through the sister-city relationship with Vallauris, a Pablo Picasso exhibition (graphics, ceramics) was also organized in 1963 at the Tornyai János Museum. The relationship with the entire museum is also continuous (except during the South Slavic war period), and exchange exhibitions are organized.