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Opening a landmark exhibition of Henri Matisse’s works at Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts on Thursday, President Katalin Novák said that art and culture were needed “even in the darkest of times.”
Photo via Katalin Novák’s official Facebook page
Noting that Matisse created art even during the horrors of two world wars, President Novák said the artist had not put his brush down, knowing that art and culture were needed during that dark period.
Novák said that through his work we can learn about the horrors of war and understand why we must do everything we can to prevent it from escalating in our neighborhood.
Photo via Katalin Novák’s official Facebook page
“We Hungarians want to win peace, not war…” the president said. “Peace talks are akin to an open window that can lead us out of the darkness.”
To survive the war, the wisdom of leaders is needed, as well as the works of artists “who can transmute our pain, anger, feelings of loneliness and experience into poetry, prose, music, and images.”
Photo via Katalin Novák’s official Facebook page
Novák said Russia was the aggressor in the war in Ukraine, and its leaders were responsible, yet writings of Pushkin, Tolstoy, or Solzhenitsyn, the works of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev should not be discarded because of their decisions.
Henri Matisse: The Colour of Ideas – masterpieces of the Centre Pompidou – Musée national d’art modern, Paris, is a comprehensive exhibition with a selection of more than 150 works from the French painter’s life, opened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The exhibition is the first show featuring Henri Matisse’s art in Hungary. It guides visitors through all the main periods of the artist’s oeuvre from his Fauve period all the way to his late gouache paper cut-outs.
Featured photo via Katalin Novák’s official Facebook page