Miklós Németh: The Joy of Life
Contemporary exhibition

Miklós Németh: The Joy of Life

2022-09-01

A joint exhibition and fair of Miklós Németh works by Virág Judit Gallery and Bodó Gallery

Miklós Németh (1934–2012) is an excellent example of the obsessive creator; despite his difficult circumstances, he was a dedicated, independent artist whose life was guided by one goal: painting. He worked quickly, confidently, without hesitation, completing several pictures a day. In Ödön Márffy’s painting school (between 1950-1954), his masters were István Ilosvai Varga, Emil Gádor and Menyhért Tóth, but his work was clearly influenced by the French Post-Impressionist and Fauve masters, such as Cézanne, Gauguin, and Rouault.

The subjects of Miklós Németh’s expressive paintings are nudes, portraits, and still lives. A full-blooded colourist, his richly treated pictures are characterized by an abundance of colours. He is the painter of the joy of life, the affirmation of life, whose energetic, layered works proclaim love, cheerfulness, and the Dionysian world.

“My pictures follow the great German Expressionists and the great French artists with a deliciously confused Hungarian subject matter and colour scheme. My colours are heightened and glowing like Van Gogh’s, expressing inner feelings and expression itself to the limit. My colour scheme is harmonious and dissonant. I believe that colour is the most important thing in painting, and I subordinate everything to it. To express emotions sometimes loudly, at times in a quiet and delicate way.” (Miklós Németh: An Autobiography, 1988)