Budapest native Márton Takáts applies a classical style to contemporary settings in his graphics and paintings, capturing sunlight and lamplight with muted realism reminiscent of oversized canvases by Old Masters hanging in major museums – but the visions of Takáts often conceal intriguingly bizarre details. In “The Budapest of Márton Takáts” – a new exhibition on view at the Koller Gallery, celebrating its 65th anniversary this year – the artist presents a recent collection of paintings depicting familiar modern-day Budapest hangouts and oft-ignored city scenery with brilliant allure, along with a few surprises for those who look closely.
In a couple of his new paintings, Takáts includes popular fictional detectives from widely varied eras who are apparently following up on leads in present-day Budapest – Tense Moments in Callas (with Philip Marlowe and an unknown diva) features the hard-boiled 1930s gumshoe standing at the bar of the elegant café next door to the Opera House, while Deckard in the Gozsdu shows the futuristic Blade Runner strolling through the ever-buzzing nightlife scene at downtown Pest’s Gozsdu Udvar courtyard complex.
A trio of paintings focuses on Budapest’s famously ornate New York Café, presenting myriad gilded details for Takáts to immortalize with his light-bending brushstrokes. One of these canvases shows an indistinct group of tourists sitting at a table as seen from a nearby balcony, an image certainly familiar to any recent New York Café visitor… but the next painting shows the eatery’s grand piano and fanciful fixtures with more focus, along with a coffeehouse regular from long ago – groundbreaking Belle-Époque-era Hungarian poet and journalist Endre Ady. The final painting of this trilogy seems to innocuously portray a graceful column, but the ghostly face of a feather-adorned flapper peeks out from a mirror mounted on it.
The standout work of this exhibit is Irén and Tom, set inside Kiadó Kocsma – a favored hangout among Budapest’s creative underground crowd. Here an oversized photo of Hungarian film legend Irén Psota (characteristically enjoying a cigarette) adorns an entire wall, while an enigmatic fellow named Tom is apparently lighting up as well at the bar… but Tom will be disappointed to learn that smoking in pubs has been illegal here for quite a few years now.
Along with such fanciful images, this exhibit includes some evocative street scenes of present-day Budapest – a striking sunset illuminates the usually overlooked Petőfi Bridge; the century-old Art Nouveau-styled Gellért Hotel is majestically floodlit just as it was in decades past, as a modern city bus whizzes by; meanwhile, a nondescript bus stop on urban Buda’s Attila Avenue is gorgeously limned by golden rays cast from nearby streetlights.
Any aficionado of Budapest’s modern nightlife, timeless landmarks, and random eye-catching corners will enjoy “The Budapest of Márton Takáts”, especially amid the exhibit’s historic setting. The Koller Gallery was established in 1953 within a venerable Castle District building that once served as a home and studio for globally renowned Magyar sculptor and actor Amerigo Tot, most widely known as Michael Corleone’s bodyguard in The Godfather Part II. A memorial room in the gallery’s attic presents some of Tot’s sculptures along with panoramic Budapest views, and the public is welcome to enjoy all of this for no entry fee.
“The Budapest of Márton Takáts” is on view at the Koller Gallery (Budapest 1014, Táncsis Mihály utca 5) through March 11th; check out the Koller Gallery website for more information.
