THE GALIMBERTI. The Lives and Works of Sándor Galimberti (1883–1915) and Valéria Dénes (1877–1915)

An exhibition featuring the oeuvre of two prominent figures of twentieth-century Hungarian art, Sándor Galimberti and his second wife, Valéria Dénes, will open at the Hungarian National Gallery in autumn 2024. Besides presenting their art, the large-scale exhibition – realised within the framework of the Liszt Fest – International Cultural Festival – will also include works by the painter’s first wife, Marie Galimberti-Provázková (Mária Lanov), and his father, Luigi Galimberti.

The work of Sándor Galimberti and Valéria Dénes is scattered and largely missing, with barely more than forty of their paintings having survived. An exhibition of the art of Sándor Galimberti was organised in his hometown, Kaposvár, in 2002 but the number of works known from his oeuvre has significantly increased in the two decades since then. Moreover, recent research has fundamentally revised the story and importance of the Galimberti couple. Our exhibition seeks to present the complete material known thus far, along with the paintings – mostly linked to Hungary – by Galimberti’s first wife, the Bohemia-born Marie Galimberti-Provázková (Mária Lanov), as well as the legacy of his father, Luigi Galimberti. The activity of the Galimbertis spanned from plein air naturalism through Secession and Fauvism to cubism, and, in a certain sense, even to futurism. The couple made a similarly extensive journey on the map of Europe, travelling from Kaposvár through Nagybánya (now Baia Mare, Romania) all the way to Paris, Belgium and, finally, to the Netherlands. The National Gallery’s exhibition will present the places that played an important role in the life of the couple. In Paris, the Galimbertis learnt from the most modern painters. Valéria Dénes was a pupil of Henri Matisse, while Marie Galimberti-Provázková (Mária Lanov) attended the Académie de La Palette and the Académie Russe, where she familiarised herself with the most recent trends, mainly cubism.
Recent research findings have fundamentally changed the attribution of about one-tenth of the Galimberti–Dénes oeuvre, since several of the pictures previously attributed to Sándor Galimberti (including cardinal works) were painted by his second wife, Valéria Dénes.
A large part of the displayed works are loans from public collections, while diverse material was also contributed by private collectors. Similarly to the curator’s other exhibitions, a prominent role is given to lost works: the WANTED section includes enlarged black-and-white archival photographs of the more significant missing paintings, drawing attention to the painful hiatuses in the oeuvre.
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated 370-page catalogue, which can be regarded as the first major Galimberti–Dénes monograph.

Curator of the exhibition: Gergely Barki, art historian