– Gyula Derkovits’ resting place in the Fiumei út cemetery is in a state that does not suit the rank of such a significant artist. There is a worn wooden cross on it, which has not even been varnished, and the name and date of birth can barely be read on it. All of this is also annoying because the painter, who died in 1934, has a tombstone, which is the work of the sculptor Ferenc Medgyessy. The work is currently in the sculpture collection of the Hungarian National Gallery (MNG), writer Erika Lajta, an admirer of Gyula Derkovits (1894–1934), told our newspaper that she wants to start a social initiative to return the original tombstone to the painter’s grave in the cemetery.
Erika Lajta first came across Derkovits’ work in the monograph written by art historian Péter Molnos about the painter, and then delved into his story. In 2019, he also wrote a drama about the artist living in poor conditions, entitled Ecsetem a gesweenem, the theme of which is the relationship between power and the artist. In 2023, the text “Who was buried four times” was published in the journal Eszmélet, in which he describes how the painter was buried four times after his death in 1934. First, his wife, Viktória Derkovits (born: Viktória Dombai), buried him in the Új Köztemetób in Rákoskeresztúr, and then, with the help of art collectors, he erected a tombstone, which was created in 1937 by Ferenc Medgyessy, a two-time Kossuth Prize-winning sculptor. During socialism, Derkovits’ ashes were first moved to the artist’s plot of the Kerepesi cemetery, and then, with the widow’s approval, to the Labor Movement Pantheon created there – that’s when Viktória Derkovits offered the tombstone to the MNG. Long after the regime change, in 2016, the opposite situation emerged: Derkovits’ admirers are taking the initiative to return the painter to the artist’s plot, where a wooden cross will be placed on his grave.
Art historian Judit Szeifert, head of the MNG Szobor Ozztály y Eremtáry, told Népszava: “The tomb of Gyula Derkovits made by Ferenc Medgyessy was added to the MNG’s collection as a gift from the artist’s widow, Viktória Derkovits, in 1959. It was his wish that the grave monument of museum value be kept in the public collection, after the exhumation of Derkovits’ body on February 20, 1959 and the placement of his ashes in the decorative grave site donated by the capital. The Pagan Ö. The offer addressed to Gábor, the then director general of MNG, was accepted as a family gift by the director general with words of appreciation.”
We also asked: what would happen if the tombstone made of limestone – otherwise not exhibited in the gallery – was standing again in the cemetery? “The ambient steam is absorbed into the stone material, reacts with the salts in it and exerts its effect depending on the given material. Temperature fluctuations, which in some cases are also supported by direct sunlight, have an additional effect. This causes a more frequent alternation of freezing cycles, exposing the works of art to considerable stress,” wrote the art historian. He added that bird excrement is an additional source of danger outdoors, which, due to its acidic composition, poses an increased threat to carbonate-based sculptures that are sensitive to it, such as marble and limestone, especially in a humid environment, so it is absolutely necessary to avoid it in order to preserve the condition of the sculptures. “From all this, it follows that the grave monument of museum value, which has significant artistic value both because of its creator and the person depicted, according to the intention of the artist’s family and heirs, the placement in a museum provides dignified conditions,” replied the head of the department.
As a background institution of the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Heritage Institute (NÖRI) is also the trustee and operator of the Fiumei út cemetery. We asked NÖRI who is responsible for taking care of the graves in the artistic plot of the Fiumei út cemetery, and why Gyula Derkovits’ grave is not taken care of. In their answer, they described that NÖRI exercises the right of disposal in relation to the burial places included in the national cemetery – including the grave monument of Gyula Derkovits. “However, protection in itself does not include the care of the more than 6,300 nationally protected graves as part of the national cemetery, but if one of them is in an accident-prone or extremely unworthy state (especially if a tombstone has also been placed over the grave, which is not the case with the grave of Gyula Derkovits fenn), then the National Heritage Institute will take care of its restoration as part of its annual renovation program.”
In addition, they added: “Regarding the resting place of Gyula Derkovits, in 2016, at the same time as the reburial, the organization requesting the transfer indicated that they would also like to place a grave monument on the newly created grave site, which our institute would support, but since then neither the National Memorial and Pardon Committee nor the No further inquiries have been received from NÖRI.”
It was hard to support
– Derkovits was a peculiar artist, who differed from his contemporaries in his style, and who, based on his painterly manner, was usually classified in the Gresham circle, that is, in the table of the Gresham Café, whose members included Bernáth Aurél, Róbert Berény and József Egry, but Derkovits’ self-consciousness of the proletariat he was not among them because of that – art historian Péter Molnos told our newspaper Derkovits – Face to face with the world author of the 2008 monograph entitled – For a long time, it was thought that the painter was not appreciated by the patrons and art collectors of the era, but I showed in my volume that he was very much patronized, that is, he would have been patronized. In fact, the collector Lajos Fruchter would have provided him with a monthly allowance, but Derkovits despised the middle class so much that it was difficult to help him. And although the great collectors of the era, such as Baron Ferenc Hatvany, Ödön Márton and the aforementioned Fruchter, sought him out and bought from him, they could not support him as often because Derkovits refused in many cases, said Molnos.
Source: nepszava.hu
