NOTES FROM AWAY – 2
Spring Warms Up in Budapest
Here we are, over four weeks into Budapest life. Time passes quickly, too quickly. Feeling better now, a strong urge to resume the reconnect takes over as the weather suddenly warms up – much appreciated but perhaps even that happens too quickly. Yesterday was around 80 Fahrenheit, now it’s back to a more seasonal 60-70°s. The trees lining the boulevards are bursting with pink and white bimbo (buds), others already offering up delicate canopies of a beautiful spring light-green. Aranyfa (forsythia), even daffodils and tulips appear. Back in Vermont it’s mud-season, rather cold with lingering appearances of snow, so I hear.
The days are a strange simultaneous layering of here and there. The politics at home (of which everyone here is acutely aware) fuse into contiguous catastrophes – just learned of more immigrants in Vermont being seized and spirited away by ICE and other federal agents… We are heartened by many Vermonters speaking out, including all our representatives in Washington and many State and local officials as well. On the other hand, just read an article in the Guardian describing the personal predicaments of US citizens fleeing political persecution, hardship and oppression. Echoes of our own flight from flood-ridden Montpelier resonate deeply.
Last night I couldn’t sleep. With the kitchen door shut and the overhead light on, I ate buttered rice cakes and honey. There were deep sounds of thunder, had to peek out the courtyard door curtains to make sure that the rumbling was a rainstorm and not bomber planes from over the border in Ukraine – has it come to this? There was a heavy, not unpleasant silence behind the irregular roiling – strangely still, it was the sound of silence in a summer rain with paradoxical peacefulness. Right here, in the heart of this big European city! If I were outside, would I smell the dusty fragrance of warm rain on pavement?
So difficult to keep up, keep on, to give oneself permission to live. The impulse surges, crests and then falls and so these days go way beyond the usual roller coaster of big city life!
Yet on some level these days are full of ordinary things; recovering from flu, food shopping, working around major electrical renovations going on here at Bérkocsis utca (Street) 12-14, while on cultural and social fronts our activities are ticking up in pace.
Last week on a still-chilly evening we went to the first art opening of this trip at the ARTUS STÚDIÓ, a huge, raw exhibition space in a former industrial building on the Buda side of the city. I’d never been there. Took the 4 metro from our stop at Rákóczi tér (square) to Móricz Zsigmond körtér (circle square) at the end of the line, where we hopped onto a tram for a few stops out to the Kelenföld neighborhood.
The show is “Négyen másképpen” (Four Different Ways) and features works of four women artists; my dear friend MÓZES KATALIN as well as that of ZOLTAI BEA, KRAJCSOVICS ÉVA and KOVÁCS JOHANNA, all members of the MAGYAR FESTŐK TÁRSASÁGA (Society of Hungarian Painters). Kati Mózes’ nuanced new paintings were dark, Bea Zoltai’s vigorous mixed media collage/paintings were dark as well, while Johanna Kovács’ white textural relief pieces and Éva Krajcsovics’ minimalist color field paintings veered into different explorations. The event was opened by poet Zoltán Halasi. This was my first chance since my last trip in the winter of 2022 to reconnect in person with many of my friends and art colleagues. 
A couple of nights later we went to a second opening – “Fiktív arcképek és Titkos járatok” (Fictitious Portraits and Secret Passages), a solo exhibition of recent work by KOVÁTS ALBERT at the Múzeum Hotel Galéria. There was a huge turnout. Albert, an extraordinarily active artist and writer was, until recently, the long-time president of the Magyar Festők Társasága (Society of Hungarian Painters). HERE are some online photos of the exhibition and opening event and here below are some I shot while at the event.
Albert’s decades-long “Ubu” series, derived from ALFRED JARRY’S 1896 “pre-dada” play “King Ubu” (Ubu Roi ) explores among other things, the representation of evil as manifested in a deeply and disturbingly distorted human portraiture. His visual language has echoes of many different 20th century European artistic influences; from Bauhaus-derived structure, to tonalities and sculptural forms of BARCSAY JENŐ to FRANCES BACON‘S portrayals of an insideously inhuman humanity.
The Múzeum Hotel Galéria has long been an exhibition space showcasing works by Társaság members. The exhibition of my “FRAGMENTATION” series took place there in 2012! A selection of this series was recently featured in my “CHAOS AND CATHARSIS” solo exhibition at the Front Gallery in Montpelier, Vermont.
Last night we attended another exhibition opening of paintings by SINKÓ ISTVÁN, colleague and current president of the Társaság at the to the Semmelweis Egyetem (university). RÓMAI ÉS MÁS PILLANATOK (Roman and other moments) features paintings done after the artist’s recent visit in Rome. In addition to the exhibition of paintings and the in-depth panel discussion, there was an inspiring piano recital of Brahms rhapsodies. Visual art openings here always offer such presentations of music, poetry or discussion to accompany the visual work.
István opened my 2022 exhibition: A VILÁG MINT KOLLÁZS ÉS TOVÁBBI EXTRAPOLÁCIÓK (World as Collage and other Extrapolations) at the FERENCVÁROSI HELYTÖRTÉNETI MÚZEUM.
Late this morning off we went to the LISZT ACADEMY CONCERT HALL to buy tickets for several classical concerts. The first, tomorrow, will be in the Liszt Museum’s small performance hall in the building where Liszt Ferenc (Franz Liszt) lived, worked and performed. It’s a lovely venue, one of our favorite, just off Andrássy Út (boulevard)on the Hunyadi Tér (square). Retiree’s half-price tickets are 2000 HUF (around $5) each.
We’ll hear three concerts at the Old Liszt Museum, a doctoral student performance in the Solti terem (Solti Hall) of the Academy’s restored Main building and another in the elegant Pesti Vigadó Concert Hall and Art Gallery right along the Danube. Doctoral student performances are free, while the fancy Vigadó tickets were around $15 each for a couple of good seats.
Am I working? Well, yes. Finished the new quadriptych of small mixed-media pieces on gessoed unfolded paper bags (came all the way from home holding our travel lunch – Vermont cheddar cheese sandwiches). Am busy framing this new work for an upcoming juried Társaság group exhibit in the nearby city of Eytk. A few more mixed-media explorations are in the works as well.
I’ll end with a short memorial honoring an old friend ORBAN GYÖRGY, publisher, book store owner and intellectual. Gyuri died unexpected after a series of health complications. A video recently posted on YouTube about Gyuri can be seen HERE.
I was first introduced to Gyuri in 2004 by another dear departed friend BUDAI KATALIN, a theatre critic working in the Ministry of Culture. Together we arranged for the installation/performance of my WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA collaborative project in the cellar exhibition space of Gyuri’s bookshop on Raday utca in June of that year. Gyuri took part in the opening of three subsequent exhibits of mine: ŁÓDŹ – THE RETURNING, DIALOGS WITH JÓZSEF ATTILA, and PRESENT CONTINUOUS. We met regularly when I was in Budapest and together studied the works of ATTILA JÓZSEF and other Hungarian poets in Hungarian and English. I remain honored to have known him. He is very much missed.
Next installment: Auróra Community House and Mark Richards “klíma kert” garden, walks in the hood, concerts, visits with Magyar friends and colleagues; as always, with eyes glued to our world.
– And for the moment, that’s it from Budapest!
Diane (4.26.25)
Diane Sophrin 
