Biography
Alfréd Réth, born Alfréd Róth (Budapest, February 29, 1884 – Paris, September 1966) was a Hungarian painter who worked in France, an important representative of avant-garde art, and a member of the École de Paris artist group.
He met István Farkas and László Mednyánszky as a child, and at the latter's suggestion he began to paint. At first, Mednyánszky taught the young man in his studio, but also introduced him to Buddhism and Eastern arts, which interested him. After mastering the basics of painting, in 1903 he joined the painters of Nagybánya, returning to the artist colony for several years to work among the painters of the group, and then in 1904 he painted under the direction of Károly Ferenczy.
In 1905 he traveled to Paris with József Egry, and never returned home from there (apart from short family visits). In the French capital, he worked in the studio of J. E. Blanche on Montmartre. His first works reflect the influence of Cézanne's last period (Bathers, Nudes and Horses). He met the orientalist Jean Buchot, in whom he revived what he had heard from Mednyánszky, and Hindu art later had a serious influence on his artistic development. Here we must mention the parallel according to which Negro art influenced the development of classical cubism.
In 1909, he painted in Varengeville, and also made theoretical observations: he established that straight lines predominated on the painted subjects, in a ratio of 7:1. He also applied this in his depictions: in his works, there was one curved line for every seven lines. He first exhibited at the Autumn Salon in 1910, and in the following years he successfully participated in the Salon de Indépendants, among the Cubists, Picabia, Léger, Kupka, Gris, Duchamp and others. He became a recognized Cubist painter, as evidenced by the fact that in 1913, at the initiative of Herwarth Walden, Der Sturm in Berlin organized a large exhibition of his works (with more than 80 paintings), and in Paris he had a solo exhibition at the Berthe Weill gallery. That year he also exhibited in Budapest, where 36 of his paintings could be seen by the interested public at the Művészház. His style was characterized by a particular cubism, and in addition to the geometric representation of reality, he dealt with the relationships of planes. He also created large, roll-out paintings, for example, he had a six-meter-long drawing (made for Lugné-Poe in 1914), the design of which was reminiscent of the flow of the Seine.
During the First World War, he was interned as a foreigner, and in the Normandy camp he had no opportunity to paint for five years, so he was excluded from the circle of artistic life. After the war, he found himself in a difficult situation, he had to recreate his art and style. The Cubist society no longer existed, so he became a member of the École de Paris artist group (it is interesting that its members were mostly foreign artists living in Paris). In 1922, he exhibited at the Belvedere Salon, and then in 1930 at the National Salon in Budapest. His paintings showed an aspiration for abstraction, but at that time he had not yet painted purely abstract pictures (Téren, 1925).
In 1932, he joined the Abstraction-Création group. He used foreign materials in his works (he had already made attempts at this before): he pressed pebbles, charcoal, and eggshells into the paint, but soon he also used them separately. Between 1935 and 1939, he created his series of wood and metal called Forms in Space, and he also made panels in a similar style. He lived in Chantilly during World War II, and after the war, in 1946, he joined the group called “Réalités Nouvelles” as a founder, which aimed to unite abstract art with its annual exhibitions. His art was presented in a series of exhibitions. In 1948, at the Léon Degand gallery in Paris, then in Lyon, Stockholm, Paris and London.
He died in Paris in 1966. After his death, he was commemorated with several retrospective exhibitions. His works are kept, among others, at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art.
