The Eight

The Eight (A Nyolcak in Hungarian) were a Hungarian avant-garde group of painters active in Budapest from 1909 to 1918. Róbert Berény, Dezső Czigány, Béla Czóbel, Károly Kernstok, Ödön Márffy, Dezső Orbán, Bertalan Pór, and Lajos Tihanyi looked above all to Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Fauvism, and their three exhibitions - opening with New Pictures at the Könyves Kálmán Salon in December 1909 and continuing with The Eight at the National Salon in 1911 - became rallying points for Hungarian modernism. Their program reached far beyond painting: exhibitions were accompanied by symposia and by events presenting new Hungarian literature and music alongside the canvases, in the circle of Endre Ady and Béla Bartók. The group's activity helped open the way for modernism across Hungarian culture.

Defining characteristics

• Bold, saturated, non-naturalistic color in the Fauve manner
• Cézannesque construction: planes and volumes deliberately built up to structure the picture
• Simplified form and vigorous, visible brushwork over academic finish
• Figurative subjects and still lifes treated as experiments in color and structure

Key figures

• Károly Kernstok (1873-1940) — Leading figure of the group; painter of monumental Fauve-influenced compositions such as Riders at the Waterside (1910)
• Dezső Czigány (1883-1937) — Painter of still lifes and portraits within the circle
• Béla Czóbel (1883-1976) — Painter who fused Fauve color with Hungarian modernism
• Lajos Tihanyi (1885-1938) — Painter of the avant-garde circle, later active in Berlin and Paris
• Róbert Berény (1887-1953) — Painter of expressive, color-driven portraits and posters

Example works

• Still-life with Apples and Plate — Dezső Czigány (1910)
• Riders at the Waterside — Károly Kernstok (1910)

Sources

• The Eight - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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