post-impressionist
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...
College of Fine Arts
The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include:
The Americas
North America
*Alabama School of Fin ...
in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. He mentions in his autobiographical note that he eventually became Glatz's assistant, but does not add that this position was traditionally reserved for the most favoured and promising pupil.
Second World War
Although the Hungarian government officially proclaimed neutrality, they demonstrated every sympathy with
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
objectives and eventually declared war on the allies in 1941. As an artist, Jenő Szervánszky was at first exempt from serving in the army but in 1944 he too was called up and served near to the Austrian border. After heavy losses on the Russian front, however, the government sued for peace but the country was occupied by the Germans in March, 1944. Eventually, on April 4, 1945 Budapest was liberated by the Soviet armed forces. Szervánszky's regiment was disbanded by a brigade of Soviet soldiers. and, after a short period of internment, were to be marched to the Soviet Union to work as slave-labour.
Szervánszky decided on the desperate gamble of not eating in order to starve himself into a state of weakness. Over the course of a few weeks he ate less and less. His physical state rapidly deteriorated to the extent that he weighed only thirty-eight kilos. His plan worked and he was released as of no practical use as a worker.
After the war
Between 1946 and 1951 Szervánszky did graphical work and drew pictures to illustrate news stories at a time when technology did not run to photographs in newspapers. In 1951 he began teaching at the College of Applied Arts.
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
After the defeat of Germany, elections were held on November 4, 1945. They were won by the Small Landholders' Party led by
Zoltán Tildy
Zoltán Tildy (; 18 November 1889 – 3 August 1961), was an influential leader of Hungary, who served as prime minister from 1945 to 1946 and president from 1946 until 1948 in the post-war period before the seizure of power by Soviet-backed com ...
. A republic was proclaimed, and Tildy was elected president. A coalition cabinet was formed, with
Ferenc Nagy
Ferenc Nagy (; 8 October 1903 – 12 June 1979) was a Hungarian politician of the Smallholders Party who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1946 until his forced resignation in 1947. He was also a Speaker of the National Assembly of Hung ...
, a prominent member of the Small Landholders' Party, as Premier and
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi (; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian , the General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist party, as Vice-Premier. A period of political instability followed the war but the hardliner Mátyás Rákosi eventually became prime minister. The communists took power, supported by the Soviet Union, while opponents of the communist regime were sent to labour camps.
After the death of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
in March, 1953, the Soviets followed somewhat more liberal policies. This so-called “New Course” was support by
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy (; 7 June 1896 – 16 June 1958) was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (''de facto'' Prime Minister) of the Hungarian People's Republic from 1953 to 1955. In 1956 Nagy became leader ...
, who had become the Hungarian leader and, for a while, life in Hungary held the promise of being easier. By 1955, however, Nagy had been ousted by more hardline leaders such as
Ernő Gerő
Ernő Gerő (; born Ernő Singer; 8 July 1898 – 12 March 1980) was a Hungarian Communist leader in the period after World War II and briefly in 1956 the most powerful man in Hungary as the second secretary of its ruling communist party.
Ear ...
.
In the spring of 1956, the new Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
denounced the extremes of Stalin's former regime. This encouraged dissidents in Hungary to call for more freedom. Intellectuals and students demanded reforms and openly called for the withdrawal of the Soviet military from Hungarian territory. What began as massive demonstrations escalated on October 23 to riots with the police. Even though many of the communist supporters deserted the government, the Prime Minister, Gerő appealed to the Soviet Union for help. In the face of overwhelmingly superior forces, the dissidents in their turn appealed to the United Nations for assistance. Their call was ignored, and the revolution was crushed.
Although Szervánszky never actively fought for the dissidents cause, he certainly supported them. Although the official reason for his dismissal from the College of Applied Arts in 1957 was for some staff “re-structuring”, he believed he was simply dismissed because of his political beliefs. He never worked for any institution again.
A new Communist dictatorship was set up, and
János Kádár
János József Kádár (; ; 26 May 1912 – 6 July 1989), born János József Czermanik, was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, a position he held for 32 years. Declining health le ...
was installed as the head of government. Punishment of the dissidents, however, continued throughout 1957 and 1958, and thousands were deported to Soviet labour camps. Kádár remained firmly in control of Hungary for the next thirty years and it was not until 1967 that he relaxed the firm control of the USSR and was able to give Hungary the reputation of the most relaxed and liberal of all the Soviet Union satellites.
Later years
For the last forty years of his life, Szervánszky played almost no part in the public artistic community of his country. Totally devoid of ambition, he never sought to re-establish himself with the establishment, either as a teacher or an artist. He set his own goals and his own standards and, for him, the daily search for artistic truth was all the stimulus he needed. The few people who did buy paintings from him during the last thirty years of his life did so primarily because they came to his studio through personal introductions.
He died in London on March 20, 2005. He was cremated in London and his ashes were buried in the family grave in Budapest on May 31, 2005.
Jenő Szervánszky is the father of the pianist,
Valéria Szervánszky
Valéria Szervánszky (born October 1947) is a Hungarian classical pianist, born in Budapest and now a resident of the United Kingdom.
Life
Szervánszky studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary with Pál Kadosa and Gy ...
and the brother of the composer,
Endre Szervánszky
Endre Szervánszky (December 27, 1911June 25, 1977) was a Hungarian composer.
Biography
Szervánszky was born in Kistétény and studied the clarinet at the Budapest Academy of Music (1922–7). He played in various orchestras before returni ...