Gábor Pataki

The Amazing Adventures of Ambrus Járom
Dilemmas Faced by Artists of Peasant Origin in the 1960s
Gábor Pataki

In the first half of the 60s a conflict between modern art and traditional folk art culture can be detected. The resolution of this conflict could be imagined in the form of a synthesis of the two (following the model of Béla Bartók in music). This study offers some examples of this conflict and attempts at its consolidation in the art of János Orosz (folk surrealism), Mihály Schéner (individual transformation of folk art), Miklós Halmy (search for ‘archetypal roots’), etc. The paper finally deals with the fading possibility of the reconciliation of the neo-avant-garde and folkish/rural tendencies, as well as the negative connotations of the failed attempts to achieve it.