Biography
Vilmos Aba-Novák was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist, one of the most original and controversial talents of modern Hungarian painting. In 1912, he graduated from the Toldi high school in Budapest. As an eighteen-year-old art teacher's student, he adopted the nickname Aba. After that, he became a student of Imre Révész at the Academy of Fine Arts, in the summer of 1912 and 1914. In the summer of 1913, he studied oil painting with Adolf Fényes at the Szolnoki Art Colony. His studies, which had barely begun, were interrupted by the war, and in October 1914 he enlisted in the 29th Home Guard Regiment. He was wounded in the war, his right arm remained paralyzed for a long time, and he obtained his drawing teacher's diploma in 1918. In the same year, he retired, then for a year he was an assistant teacher at the József Nádor University.
And from autumn they worked with Károlly Patkó and Erzsébet Korb in Róbert Berény's studio on Városmajor Street. From the spring of 1922, he was a student of Viktor Olgyai's graphic art studio for three years. His first graphic exhibition opened in September 1922 at the Ernst Museum. From 1923, he became a member of the Association of Hungarian Etching Artists. The following year, he participated in the first group exhibition of the New Society of Artists (KÚT) at the Ernst Museum. After that, he worked at the artist colony in Szolnok and Nagybánya.
In 1925, he moved to Zugliget with his wife and model, Kato, and in the summer he painted in Felsőbánya with Károly Patkó. He won the five million kroner foreign travel award of the Pál Szinyei Merse Society. In 1926, at the first Spring Exhibition in the National Salon, he won the grand prize of the Szinyei Merse Pál Society for graphics with his etching Savonarola. In May, he organized a trip abroad, on the Venice-Verona-Milan-Bern-Paris route. He painted in Felsőbánya in the summer.
In February 1927, he organized his third collection exhibition at the Ernst Museum. He became a member of the New Society of Artists (KÚT). He participated with graphics in the Hungarian exhibitions in Florence, Warsaw, Poznan, Krakow and Stockholm. In partnership with Lajos Fonó, he established a painting equipment manufacturing plant called Norma, and in the summer he painted in Igalo and Törökkoppány in Somogy County.
In 1928, he was elected one of the members of the Szinyei Merse Pál Society and became a teacher at the Free School of Fine Arts in Belváros. They moved to Margit körút 54 in Buda. From that year on, he appeared every time at the Venice Biennale. He became a member of the Munkácsy guild. Judit's daughter was born, and in the summer she painted again in Igal.
From 1928 to 1930, he was a scholarship recipient of the Hungarian Academy in Rome, and from 1939 he was a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.
From 1930, he constantly returned to the Szolnok artist colony. He painted many genre and landscape paintings. It was exhibited for the first time in the Tamás Gallery. Between 1930 and 1937, he ran a private art school.
In 1931, he presented his material painted in Rome at the Ernst Museum. He organized collective exhibitions in Milan, Genoa, Bergamo, and Trieste. Played in Pittsburgh and New York. His painting The Departure of the Farewellers on the Tisza was bought by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He participated in the first group exhibition of the scholarship holders from Rome.
As a fresco painter, he fulfilled many state and church commissions. In 1937 it won the Paris World Exhibition, in 1940 the XXII. Grand Prize of the Venice Biennale. The virtuoso style of his late tempera paintings incorporated elements of expressionism and the formal language of the Italian novecento. It is characterized by dynamic compositions painted with loud colors and inspired by monuments.
His favorite subjects were the world of the village fair and the circus. He used a brilliant technique to evoke the life of the people of the Great Plains - not without caricaturistic elements. His pictures are preserved in the Hungarian National Gallery and other public collections, as well as in many private collections.