The exhibition features a rich selection from the collection of the André Kertész Memorial Museum in Szigetbecse and has been organized in collaboration with the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest and the Hungarian Academy in Rome.

“In his work, Hungarian André Kertész created a universe of his own, laying the foundations for modern photographic language. Through his photographs, he teaches us the necessity and elemental joy of creating images, as well as the fundamental principles of the medium itself. ‘Photography is my only language,’ Kertész used to say, and indeed, he had a mastery of it like no one before him.

In his lyrical images, subjectivity and modernism go hand in hand. His deeply humanistic and personal photographs also carry universal messages that speak to everyone. They encompass the experience of ‘seeing,’ the joy of the shot, the magic of discovery, and the small miracles of real life. His photographs are autonomous works of art: natural, clean, yet powerful and perfect in their simplicity. In his images, the unique unity of form and meaning reveals how aesthetics cannot exist without ethics.

From his childhood, Kertész consciously prepared to become a photographer and to experience the joy of creating images. Even before he could hold a camera, he had already taken photographs of interiors, so by the time he took his first photographs, he possessed the necessary skills to produce compositions. He was a born photographer: he knew what he wanted and was aware that he had the right approach in hand. He used his camera for decades as a visual diary, capturing everything that piqued his curiosity: his life, himself, his partner, his friends, his personal spaces, and the world around him. The events of his life and his emotions organically transformed into images, captured with the precision of a keen and sensitive observer. Kertész worked to ensure his work was connected to two continents (Europe and America) and three countries (Hungary, France, and the United States). Although the well-deserved international success came too late, he became one of the most celebrated photographers in the world, not just professionally; some of his iconic photographs became emblematic works of contemporary culture.

The photographs exhibited in the "Great Masters of Photography - André Kertész" exhibition are the result of a selection made by the artist himself at the twilight of his life, as a gift to the city that had given him unique childhood experiences and dedicated the André Kertész Memorial Museum to him. This retrospective, curated by the artist himself, includes not only images related to Szigetbecse but also the most renowned photographs from Kertész’s complete works, offering interested parties a unique overview of the work of this world-renowned artist.” (Gabriella Csizek, curator)

Photo credit: Satirical Dancer (Magda Förstner), Paris 1926/1967 | © André Kertész Memorial Museum

The Hungarian Academy will be closed to the public on October 23