Sándor Petőfi In Art

in Photography Lovers12 hours ago

Folder cleaning is still ongoing and it's amazing how many hidden gems you can find. It's unbelievable how many good photos I have not posted yet and if I want to be honest, it's not even about my photos, but the art I photographed.

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Today I'd like to share some of the photos I took in 2023, at the commemorative exhibition, dedicated to one of the greatest Hungarian poet, Sándor Petőfi, who's short life contributed a lot to Transylvania's literary life and tradition as well as to the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. He disappeared during the Revolution and no one has ever heard of him. In 26 years of existence, he left behind more than 850 poems.

In 2023, Hungarians all over the world celebrated 200 years from his birth and this exhibition was dedicated entirely to him. It was very interesting as the theme was Sándor Petőfi, which automatically means his life and work, but how you express that, it was up to the artists.

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Zsuzsa Lőrinc - The Four-Oaked Chariot

I must admit, visiting the exhibition puts you to the test, even if you're familiar with Sándor Petőfi's work. Unless you dedicate your life to studying his work, there's no way to know all his 850 poems. So I ran a search and there's a poem with this title. Unfortunately I can't post every poem here to see if you get what it is talked about in the poem, besides, translation would kill the meaning anyway.

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Márti Kiss - I Bless Even Those Who Planted You

I have to share something with you. If you're an art lover, you know how it works. You go to an exhibition, first thing you do is look at the exhibited piece )painting, sculpture, fabric, whatever it is), you try to figure out what you see, or what the artist meant, then you look at the title to see if you're right. Here, there's another step as after looking at the title, I run a search to see the poem connected to it, or what the artist got their inspiration from. So basically you can be wrong twice here, which is funny.

Thank God (figure of speech as God had not created the tech helping me here), we have search engines and AI as well, so I found out there's a poem with the title "You acacia trees in this garden", which contains the line that serves as title here. The poem is dedicated to the acacia trees and you can see the happiness of the person sitting under them. I'd love to spend some time there honestly.

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Gusztáv Ütő - The Man

In this case I'm a bit lost, there's a poem about being a man, but not a painter, so in this case, enjoy what you see.

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Attila Kopriva - Folk Romanticism

Most likely there's something corresponding to this painting, a poem of someone connected to the poet, but I'm clueless here too. However, the painting is lovely. I like the brushstrokes, and can figure out the meaning. Most likely the young lady is reading a love letter as back in those days, hand writing on paper and sending it was the only way of communication. Sitting in front of the window and looking out was also a very common activity.

Gustave Flaubert, the famous French writer wrote it in Madame Bovary, that "The window in the provinces replaces the theatre and the promenade." I love this quote and it's true as well.

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Ferenc Erfán - Petőfi in Ungvár

Gone missing at such a young age and in an era where photography was only at professionals' disposal, there's a famous photograph left to humanity, in which the poet is posing like this. This is why every artist, painter, sculptor is featuring the poet like this.

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Szabina Sinkó - Girl With A hat Like A Tree

I couldn't find any poem with this title, or theme, but looking at the artwork ... I don't really know what to think. The face looks like a tormented, abused one.

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Győző Sárkány - Trianon Anziks LXIV

First of all, let's see how many of you know what this -> LXIV means. Lt me know in a comment.

This is a mystery for me. Trianon is known for the Treaty of Trianon, which resulted in Hungary losing a good part of its territory after World War I and that's how Transylvania became part of Romania. But this happened way after Sándor Petőfi went missing, so I don't know what's the meaning of it. However, it can symbolize suffering and confusion that I'm sure of.

This was a very particular exhibition and I don't think I've seen anything close to it before. I hope you can find something you like here. Let me know in a comment. let's have some fun and discuss our views, or confusions.

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This is quite hard to catch and understand without some background and possibly knowing the poems as they are heavily linked... On this I will pick the abstract ones The Four-Oaked Chariot and Trianon Anziks LXIV, on the last one i can't link the flowers and the plants to the person though

LXIV should be 114 or 1014

That's the life of a Hiver, having tons of material on your phone, then on your computer, and having to filter what to post, when, and where, but often everything piles up or at a certain point we just aren't convinced by the material to upload and it stays there stored away, ha ha ha. I was surprised by the style of these paintings and the strokes made me feel a little strange; they have a certain darkness and melancholy that I can't quite figure out.

What a fascinating post! It’s incredible how these paintings can carry history, emotion, and mystery all at once. It feels like walking through the exhibition with you, seeing both the art and your thoughts come alive. Thanks for this virtual tour!