EIGHT YEARS LATER - A PILGRIMAGE

Earlier in the year I had itchy feet and wanted to go away for a break. Not necessarily for an exhibition. Just to get away. But where? I looked up at a photo of my Mother taken during our last little holiday before she left us. "That's it! Budapest!" We had walked a great deal on those few days but I had very little recollection of what we had seen. Budapest it would be.....Budapest it was.

The plane was full of Hungarians. On our approach, we suddenly swooped up into the air again, many of us banged our head on the seats in front and ooohhhs and ahhhss were heard in the plane. The captain announced that there was a severe storm in Budapest. We were to fly to Bratislava, refuel and return when the storm had cleared. I felt sorry for the Hungarians as the announcement was only made in English and French. When we landed, there was a scramble to leave the aircraft, only to be told that no-one could get off.

So I lost a half day. When we finally arrived in Budapest, the ground was soaked and the tarmac very slippery. 

My hotel was central and with a map, I planned my visit. 

Zara Intercontinetal

The rain had stopped. Budapest is divided by the river Danube, which is certainly anything but blue, Buda and the Pest. Buda is the residential side, Pest with it's majestic castle…….overall a very eventful history. The capital experienced many invaders and was occupied by the Turks, the Austrians, the Germans and the Russians. Greek, Serbs and Jewish merchants lived there over the centuries and have contributed to the cosmopolitan character which is very noticeable today. I wont go back to the 13th century or the Mongol invasion which reduced the city to cinders but jump straight to the second world war - which seems appropriate at the moment with all the ceremonies on in Normandy. After a very short reign by the Russians, an Admiral Horthy entered into their history on a white horse. This was no prince as he imposed an authoritarian law. To recuperate the lost territories, Horthy linked up with the Germans and at the same time was negotiating with the westerners. Far from pleased with the situation, Hitler occupied Hungary in 1944. With the total collaboration of the Magyar, the Germans deported nearly a half million Jews to Auschwitz in less than three months.  Saved by the German fiasco, many of the Jews escaped the Shoah. If I’m telling this part of history is that many of the Hungarians I know and knew were anti-Semitic ( I might add they are no longer friends today) and told the story that most people in Budapest were. I didn’t feel this on the first trip nor on this one.
Following the war, there was the communist uprising and finally democracy is installed after a part of the Wall between Hungary and Austria is pulled down. Hungary is now part of the common market although the country has kept its local currency, the Forint. Perhaps this is why I didn’t really feel « that European touch » until falling into a European shopping centre on my final day.

Monday it turns out that all museums etc are closed, so I started out by walking toward the Opera. I had tickets for « Ariadne auf Naxos » ( Richard Strauss)  on Tuesday evening. Although the place I found "looked" as if it wast he opera, as I discovered  the following day, it was a musical operetta  theatre but not the main opera. 
 

Looking across

at the small theatre

 

with quite a nice companion

I looked on the other side of the street and saw  The Photographic Museum. This was the last exhibition I saw with mother. But how had we got there? I had no recollection of taking taxis when we were here, except to go up to the castle. Today I would try and retrace our steps. The long walk started. Down to Victory square,  around the Parliament building which is quite majestic and there she was the Danube and a good kilometer away on the left, the hotel where we had stayed. Memories came rushing back. Our view of the Chain bridge. The ferry ride and hours we had spent on Marguerite Island. Not this time. I wanted to wander and discover "on foot".

Over a bridge

There it is

Bigger than I imagined

National Museum en face

Another entrance

Liberty Arch

Clean but who ?

Turning around

Looking across to Buda

And another view

In the distance

Splendid is it not?

And there was the Chain bridge

As I made my way to the Chain Bridge, I came across this very touching monument. "Shoes". Jewish families had been shot and pushed into the Danube by the nazis. Childrens' mothers, families engraved now to never let us forget the cruelty of that war. I was virtually alone. The wind hissed a violent sound as I started my climb up to the bridge.
                         

No legend needed

 

 

Yes,

I love

the majesty

of the

Chain bridge

This walk had not been planned in any way. Perhaps that's nice about visiting a city one knows a little about. Wandering where "your feet take you"! I had read my "Budapest pendant quatre Jours"  and knew that there was a Funicular to take me up to the. "It's not true" I sighed. Today was maintenance day. So I started to walk up

 

the funicular....

looking up at the first stop

and looking down

and not at the top yet

wish I was a bird

Another museum in Buda

And up

And up…

As all the museums sites were closed, there was nothing I could do but wander, climbing, gazing at the magnificent views and even having a guided tour of a museum dedicated to the founder of the pharmacy. Well at least I think it was that.  I was the only visitor and her English was musically discordant. 

The entrance to the pharmacy museum

Well, there was the Mathias Church and although it had been completely restored in the 19th century in a Neolithic style, it has a wonderful charm. What I didn’t know is that in 1867, Francois-Joseph 1er and the Empress Sissi were crowned in Hungary and Franz Listz played the organ. Also and much more dramatic is King Stephen's Royal hand which is still intact and means a great deal to the Hungarians. The King died in 1038. 

King Stephans Royal hand

King Stephans Royal hand

King Stephans Royal hand

The Virgin watching over the hand

I liked the shadow

The alter

The Nave

The Risen Christ 18th C.

Angels

Sissi?

The royal Crown

Beautiful wood work

Before the rain fell in buckets, I lunched on the terrace of an Italian restaurant and luck was with me. The Hungarians serve an excellent cider. In front of me was the Fisher's Bastion dating back to the 19th century. 

Sky begins to look menacing

The Fisher's Bastion

And down it will come

But at least I had eaten a nice salad

The clouds opened and even my poor little umbrella worked hard to protect me from the downpour. Tourists scrambled for cover and I walked bravely back, crossing another bridge and into another area altogether. There was the Basilica, but before that an art gallery beckoned me inside. One enamel painting tempted me. The artist was 50 odd and exhibiting all over the world. The owner was certainly not expecting a purchaser that day and I certainly had no intentions of buying....,but I did. The face is two faces and made me think of the two sides of our characters. The one we show..,the one we don’t. Although I have the certificate of authenticity, strangely enough the artist’s name is not indicated. Or if is, I wouldn’t know where.

Faces - enamel

I enjoyed the Basilica. Not that I can tell you about the inside work, but somehow the work on the walls captured my attention as did some of the more religious features.

My feet were beginning to feel decidedly limp. But where was I? To date my map had served me well, however which way should I be looking at it now? A charming woman stopped and showed me where I was and where I wanted to go to. For once I was only a tiny way out!

What a day and it was only the first. My faithful "Jawbone" which measures my movements and sleep as well, told me that I had walked 23 kilometers....a long soak in the bath would mend that stiffness.

This time around I was staying longer than my "exhibition trips" The visit would be less of a rush. In the morning I started out for the Fine Arts museum. I called it the Beaux Arts. The young lady looking after me at the reception was baffled and  gasped, "you can't walk THAT far....." But I could. Walking along the Champs Elysées of Budapest or the Andrassy ut, there with not a MacDonalds or Disneyland shop in sight. The shops were very sophisticated, bending in with the tree lined avenue.

Budapest is BIG. It's overpowering, large buildings rising high. Not like Paris but somehow daunting. The tiny streets are dark, with "trompe l'oeil" to make you forget that many of the buildings are still black from the communist period. 

The Horror museum which I did not visit

This at least was clean but was it a letter box?

Big abd long....

Must be one of the last but the vandals have been there

You say it's a letter box?

Stretch cars too

Trompe l'oeil

And another

But this is not....

The Fine Arts was bowing down at me. Two hours in the 20th Century and Egyptian  sections, 

FINE ARTS FACADE

Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) Direct Democray - How the dictator ship of parties can be oversome 1971

Fernando Botero (1932-) Self Portrait 1992

Bust of Fate - Middle Italian Master 17thC

Francesco Massilmiliano Laboureur (1767-1831) Metabus and His Daughter 1820

Jesus Rafaeil Soto Azure and Black 2003

Armando (1929- Dutch) Head 1990

Claude Viallat (1936-) 1981

Alberto Burri (1915-1995) Cellotex V. 1885

Adolf Luther (1912-1990) Energetic Plastic 1978

Heinz Mack (1931-) Light Rotor

Hermann Nitsch - Red and Black dripping painting 1992

Otto Muehl (1925-2013) Material picture 1981

Laszlo Lakner (Budapest 1936-) Fragment 1996

Oskar Kokoschka  (1886-1980) Veronika' Veil 1909

Zoltan Kemeny (1907-1965-Zurich) The Lovers of the Garden 1947

Zoltan Kemeny (1907-1965-Zurich) Lines on the run 1955

Gyorgy Kepes (1906-2001) Buccaneer Hues 1970

Etienne Hajdu - Victoria 1955

Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-) Cage 1986

Anonit Tapies (1923-2012) X from Tissue 1980

Oskar Kokoschka  (1886-1980)Poster design for Der Sturm 1911

Jean Dewasne (1921-1999-French) The Spirit of Laws 1953

richard Mortensen (1910-1993) Opus for the Harbour ofToulon 1951

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) Cardbird VI

And onto the Egyptian

Cuit statue of a cobra-shapped goddess (New Kingdon 2nds half of 2nd millennium BC)

Statue of a goddess or priestess

Statue of a young lady

reconstruction from the left statues. Looked quite of place

Phoenix (3rd-1st BC)

 Mumifictaion of animals

croco

Mumified Haks FIrst half of the 1st millennium BC

Mumified cat 3rd C BC 

Lucas Cranach, The Elder - The Virgin suckling the child

Clay figures (2000-1600 BC)

Bird Shaped soul of the deceased (6th-2nd BC)

Lucas Cranach, the Elder - Salome

Lucas Cranach - The Virgin and Child with a bunch of grapes

Looking down

Lucas Cranach, The Elder - The Virgin Mary and the Man of Sorrow

Pieter Breughel, The Yonger - The Blind Hurdy Gurdy Player

Pieter Breughel, the Younger (1564-1637/8) The Crucifixion

Jan Brueghel (1568-1625) Paradise Landscape

and then an unfortunate experience which made me furious as I was told, and in no uncertain manner, that my bag must be left at the cloakroom. I was prepared to turn my back on the Toulouse Retrospective and stomp my way out. I'm glad I didn't but my 1€ photo permission did not give me lease to use my Iphone to take some fabulous drawings of his girls, Theatres, brothels…..

but then I wandered, discovering the Bruegel room, next to the Bosch. I was alone......obviously I could have stayed longer to discover other periods but now I was on my way to take a look at the Széchenyi Thermal baths. It was hot and sticky and I certainly regretted my bathers. 

Széchenyi Thermal baths

Just the Park

                    Walk across the garden, then back and into another gallery dedicated to a Hungarian collection. The Gabor Kovacs Art Collection. He was born 2 January 1957 in Orosháza. A Hungarian financier, banker, art collector, philanthropist and founder of KOGART which is the name of the gallery I visited.
The early 20th century art is very "paysan". The influence of the impressionists is evident. Perhaps not as good as out own. But there was one artist I did like. Naive perhaps but with a great deal of charm. Béla Kádár (1877–1956) influenced by Der Blaue Reiter, Cubism, Futurism, Neo-Primitivism, Constructivism, and Metaphysical painting. Considering his periods, it’s not surprising that I liked his work. 

vaszary Janos (1867-1939) Little girl in the vegetable garden 1893

The Gallery

Batthyany Gyuala (1887-1959) - Villas 1930s

Kadar Béla (1877-1956) Sisters 1930

Kadar Béla - Lady with a guitar 1930

Kadar Béla -Seated woman - 1930

Very empty

szekely Bertalan (1835-1910) Jenny Szekely

Rippl-Ronai Jozsef (1861-1927) Veiled woman in the Garden 1909

Hassak

Moholy Nagy Laszlo (1895-1946 - Composition 41/46

Kadar Béla - Woman in Hat with fruit basket 1935

Marko Ferenc (1832-1874) Before the Storm 1867

Then the photographic museum. How on earth did Mother climb those stairs? I felt a little like this when leaving and my hand trembled when I took the photo of the place where she stood and it turned out to be the last photo I took of her.

I chose to visit the Jewish synagogue on my way back to the hotel. The first time I had seen it (with Mother) it had been crowded. There were two small groups but I was content to wander around alone, visit the museum, the garden with its aluminum tree and each leaf engraved with a name, look at the grave- I like that Jewish tradition, no flowers to fade and die but a stone is placed on the tomb in respect. The place is beautiful and I feel inwardly warm when I visit. I must add, that it is the second largest synagogue in the world after New York. Also that it dates from 1859. There was a lot of criticism about it earlier on as it did not look unalike from a church so described as the Israelite Cathedral. Thanks to Estée Lauder (who was born in Hungary) and her donation of 5 million dollars, the Synagogue is what it now. There is an estimated 120 000 jews living in Budapest today. 

 

Magic Spider Biro Jozsef (1907-45)

 Biro Jozsef (1907-45)

 Biro Jozsef (1907-45)

I wandered through the museum and there was a small exhibition of an artist Josef Biro but nothing that really marked me.


Tonight I was going to the opera. Having discovered where it really was, there was a 20 minute walk along streets that if in Paris, I would be afraid to take them. Sinewy, dark and hooligans could be tempted to attack (old) ladies. I got there and back without an incident! 


Now the opera. Of course this is something I would not choose to do unless it was Britten. Well really, Strauss! But the scenario sounded quite crazy. Who knows? I might be amused. 

The guide book told me it the building was  something to see. I discovered that there was an English tour every day which may have shown me more than I saw. Little did I realize that it was the first night. Here women and a few local men still dress. There were a lot of 50's dresses around. Sad to say, the few Asiatic tourists I saw were in bermudas and sandals. I wore a slack suit.

The staging of the opera was outrageously kitsch and "camp". Thankfully, subtitles in English and Hungarian. The singers were excellent and my unused german understood a lot of this crazy story. Nothing memorable about the music but I skipped a little skip on the way back the hotel. My waiter was there, all smiles and I was ready to eat and have a glass of excellent Hungarian wine.


Just a little about the opera.

« A magnificent opera seria with a mythological subject and the playful humour of the commedia dellarte are juxtaposed in this work of art when the invisible host of a social gathering in Vienna, which serves as the frame of the plot, decides to save time and entertain the guests with the simultaneous performance of the two pieces he ordered for the evening. There is the desperate young composer, the whimsical prima donna and the similarly capricious tenor, a majestically straightforward Major-Domo and a whole troupe of comedians in the prologue, and the two genres are merged in a wonderful and yet strange way in the festive performance. Ariade, who has been abandoned maliciously and even marooned on the island of Naxos, and the god Bacchus meet and fall in love amidst the playful intermezzos and interjections of the comedians. The most important of their comments reflecting their positive attitude to life is sung by the favourite of the joyful company, Zerbinetta, to the despairing Cretan princess famous for her string: her long and comforting solo is one of the most difficult coloratura arias of operatic literature »

This was the program cover…. plus a few scenes......

 

After sleeping for 9 hours, I woke breezed-up and bright for my last full day. It would be the Ludwig Contemporary Art museum. I had printed off my marching orders from the hotel to the museum. It may have been shorter but it was the kind of route which would keep me glued to the map and lost anyway. As it happens I walked by the Main Market which was highly rated in my guide book. Food on the ground floor which made salivary glands work overtime. On the first floor the Tourist's market. I strolled around, saw nothing, bought nothing.

 
 

The walk along the Danube was undoubtedly further than the directions  printed off. I stopped in a devastatingly modern, out of place and empty building to ask my way. The security guard's eyebrows rose a few centimeters. I was on the right track but still had some distance to cover his arms indicated as they waved at me.....

Oh So modern

There were two temporary exhibitions. Simon Hantai and another Hungarian woman whose work - or some of it - I really did like. Reigl Judit -born in 1923 and has lived and worked in France since 1950. No, I didn’t know her work at all even if she has exhibited in all the major Art museums in the world. Firstly a Surrealist compositions, through her gestural abstract works, through to her paintings depicting the human forms and cyclically returned to a figurative approach.

Empty and I was caught

taking photos

simon hantai  around 47

simon hantai  around 47

Simon Hantai

Simon Hantai -Paunch - 64

Simon Hantai -Paunch - 64

Catamourons 65

and caught again

Simon Hantai

Aquarelle 71

Looking out to where I had come from

Simon Hantai

Simon Hantai

outbirst 156 Reigl Judit

Reigl Judit

Reigl Judit

DOMINANCIA KORPONT - Centre of dominance 1958

REIG JUDIT

REIGL JUDIT

REIGL JUDIT - 9/11

 Both artists had exposed together. Not surprising as their work is similar. No photos permitted. I was very much alone in the exhibitions and dared - and was caught. I persisted.

Simon Hantai's work is reminiscent of Matisse for me. Colours, shapes ? Hantai's earlier work I knew nothing about. Surprisingly realistic until he began to torture paper. Reigl  Judit    on the other had started by surrealism then developed a style of her own. Most of the time she used her body to disperse the paint. Klein? The most touching was her image of 9/11. She herself saw bodies falling from the towers and depicted this afterwards.

The permanent collection was quite different from those I have seen in other contemporary art museums. Obviously many of the artists I didn’t know. Some I liked and you will see those below. Others not at all. The Picasso room, only three, was a dream. Taking photos, I was "seen' again. My reputation was traveling from floor to floor.

 

COMPANY WITH GUARD 81/82 SIGHARD GILLE

T.M.PENK

 And the Picasso

MATADOR AND NUDE WOMAN 1970

PICASSO

Matador

The "Tatlin Tower" gave me tremendous views of the theatre, the Danube and the distance back.  I tried taking the train to return but was on the wrong platform. Will I ever learn? It was fascinating watching the bridges and already visited sites come closer to me. There on the other side of the river was the Gellert hotel and their famous spas, water and swimming facilities. I was able to visit the halls with the Art Deco architecture, a surprising exhibition of copies of Vasarely’s work.

 
 

Tatlin Tower

Zigguart Gallery of National theatre

bridge behind Ludwig

I had to go back there?

perhaps I could get lostehere

Or stay for the theatre

Or go back

That building again

And inside the baths

Gellert hotel and their famous spas

 

Vasarely - copy

Vasarely - copy

 The thought of having a foot massage tempted me, then memories came back of the same "torture"in Shanghai. I renounced. My feet would drag me back to my hotel.

Another bridge to cross and suddenly I was in the heart of the shopping centre. Horror! Every brand name, shop sign we know was closing in on me. That of course is why I had been so relaxed over the last three days. No Big Mac, Fast Food signs or humans dressed up as cartoon character to invade me. I stepped up my pace and got out and back to the hotel faster than I thought was possible. Here letter boxes looked doubtful. Phone boxes still stood but vandals had tried to reduce them to shattered glass. (see above).

On my final morning, one last try to discover how we had walked from the Sofitel to the centre - and back again. I didn't find the coffee lounge where we drank our hot chocolate. My trip is eight years later and virtually day for day. It was freezing as Mother and I returned to the Sofitel. Today it was 32°

I'll never discover the route we took. I do know that Jawbone told me that this morning trying to trace our steps, I walked 8 kilometers. Mother had arrived in a wheel chair and left Budapest with a tiny trot. When asked by a close friend back in Paris, where she had been, she answered. "I don't know but I had a wonderful time!" So did I but I think it can be said, that I "walked" Budapest. 

MODOS a useful word

Just one last point. There is one word in Hungarian I learnt very fast - MODOS - toilets.....