The Galimbertiks, forgotten works of painting
Exhibition of the works of Sándor Galimberti (1883-1915) and Valéria Dénes (1877-1915)
Hungarian National Gallery 10 October 2024 – 26 January 2025
The Nagybánya artists’ colony was founded in 1896 by Simon Hollósy, and many epoch-making Hungarian painters emerged from its walls. Among them were Sándor Galimberti and his wife, Valéria Dénes, who were among the defining figures of 20th-century modern Hungarian painting.
Galimberti began his studies in Nagybánya, then trained under Simon Hollósy in Munich. He attended the Julian Academy in Paris, where he became acquainted with modern trends such as Fauvism and Cubism. His art was influenced by the traditions of Nagybánya painting, as well as the work of Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso.
Galimberti’s main themes were landscapes, cityscapes, still lifes and portraits. His early paintings reflect the naturalism of Nagybánya plein air painting, but later he increasingly emphasized the expressive power of colors and forms. In his Fauvist period, he painted with vivid, pure colors, while geometric forms dominate his Cubist paintings.
The Galimbertis’ activities ranged from plein air naturalism through Secession and Fauvism to Cubism, and even Futurism in a certain sense, but they also moved on a similarly wide path on the map of Europe, from Kaposvár through Nagybánya to Paris, Belgium and finally the Netherlands. The exhibition also presents the locations of the artist couple’s life. In Paris, the Galimbertis learned from and worked directly with the most modern painters; Valéria Dénes was a student of Henri Matisse. They exhibited almost every year at the Paris Salons, and in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I, they had a solo exhibition in Montmartre, at the legendary Galerie Berthe Weill, where the careers of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, among others, were launched.
The outbreak of World War I found the artist couple in France, and they fled to the Netherlands to avoid internment, where they were able to live and work in peace. However, Galimberti found it difficult to bear that while war was raging in Europe, he was not defending his homeland, so in the spring of 1915 they travelled back to Hungary. The painter was drafted into the army and was soon to leave for the front when his wife contracted pneumonia in July, which killed her within a few days. On the day of Valéria Dénes’ funeral, Sándor Galimberti shot himself in the heart with his service revolver behind the Műcsarnok in Budapest.
Their promising careers were cut short by their tragic deaths on the threshold of international success. Their oeuvre was scattered and lost, with only a little over forty of their paintings remaining. Although a smaller exhibition of Galimberti’s work was held in his hometown of Kaposvár in 2002, the known collection of paintings has expanded significantly in the two decades since, and the latest research has fundamentally rewritten the history and role of this particularly intertwined, dual oeuvre. Research prior to the exhibition revealed that several paintings previously attributed to Galimberti were not his, but his wife’s, Valéria Dénes.
Sándor Galimberti’s art is one of the most exciting chapters of early 20th century modernism. During his short career, he experimented with many styles of the period and developed a unique, recognizable style. His works continue to influence Hungarian painting today and remind us of an era full of hope and tragedy.
The exhibition at the Hungarian National Gallery aims to present the complete known Galimberti-Dénes material. In addition to the works of the two artists, the surviving works from the legacy of the Kaposvár painter’s father, Luigi Galimberti, will be exhibited for the first time, as will the rich collection of paintings and graphic works from the hometown of Galimberti’s first wife, Lanov Mária, of Czech origin, which will also be on display in Hungary for the first time. The exhibition features 85 paintings and graphic works and numerous documents.
This large-scale exhibition, realized as part of the Liszt Ferenc International Cultural Festival, is the most comprehensive presentation of the Galimberti couple’s work to date.
Curator of the exhibition: Gergely Barki