Nemes Endre Museum

The Nemes Endre Museum in Pécs was one of the former museums at 5 Káptalan Street. The building currently houses the Directorate of the Janus Pannonius Museum.

Exhibition history

The painter Endre Nemes, born in Pécsvárad, offered in 1983 250 of his works for a museum to be established. From this material the permanent exhibition opened in 1985, with works such as *The Unveiling of the Night* (1938), *The Three Friends* (1944), *The Accused House* (1967) and *Captured with the Bell* (1977). The museum was housed in a Baroque canon house built in the 18th century (on medieval foundations). The two glass windows of the stairwell were made by Ádám Kéri and György Buczkó according to Endre Nemes's designs.

The collection moved from 5 Káptalan Street to the opposite side of the street, to 4 Káptalan Street, where, in a building renovated within the framework of the 2010 European Capital of Culture program of Pécs, the public could see works by Ferenc Martyn, Amerigo Tot, Endre Nemes, Zlatko Prica, as well as a permanent exhibition presenting the International Collection of the Modern Hungarian Gallery.

The building at 4 Káptalan Street today houses the JPM Martyn–Lantos Museum.

About the artist

Endre Nemes (1909–1985) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, then lived in Sweden from 1940 until his death. His art is defined by abstract and surrealist visual elements. His paintings were created with fine craftsmanship and have an appealing power. Their carefully built compositions, so to speak, have every element realistic, yet they appear in situations beyond reality. Nemes's works convey a cold, mechanical worldview, as if projecting the fear of a future inhuman or mechanized human life before us.