Modiano advertising (1920)

The name and activity of Sándor Nagy are inseparably linked with the Gödöllő Artists' Colony. The efforts and artistic ideas of Nagy and Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch shaped the image of the Gödöllő Art Nouveau Settlement, the only organised association of Hungarian Art Nouveau. They believed that 'every manifestation of life must be given artistic content' and believed in the life-renewing, purifying role of art. Like William Morris, Nagy was involved in almost everything: graphic design, fresco painting, stained glass window design, plaque design, furniture, leather goods and tapestry design. The Gödöllő plant was the lifeblood of his wide-ranging activities. Sándor Nagy's works from the '10s and '20s constitute the most significant chapter of the so-called "Hungarian Art Nouveau". 

The further development of the Gödöllő Colony was brought to an end by the war. Its inhabitants scattered, and in 1920 Aladár Kőrösfői-Kriesch died. From the war years, watercolours and pastels played an increasingly important role in Sándor Nagy's art. He was a founding member of the Hungarian Watercolour and Pastel Painters Association and the Hungarian Graphic Artists Association. In the second half of the 1920s, like the post-impressionist masters associated with the Nagybánya tradition, he became preoccupied with problems of light and became a leading master of post-art. 

It would be surprising if Sándor Nagy, of all Hungarian graphic artists, had not produced Modiano posters. The cigarette paper company became famous for producing advertising posters with the most renowned graphic designers, always adapted to the individual vision of the graphic designer in charge and in the most progressive styles of the time. In keeping with his great Art Nouveau-symbolic style, Modiano's merchandise is depicted by a female figure of timeless beauty, accompanied by a cat and a flower. The woman's dress is meticulously elaborated, with the letters of the company's name behind her on archaic curtain pieces.