Zsuzsa G. Fábri's Artist Portrait Collection

Zsuzsa G. Fábri graduated from the Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1952, where she studied under such prominent Hungarian photographers as József Pécsi, Klára Langer, Mariann Reismann, and Jenő Sevcsik. Although she had originally intended to become a reporter, she eventually realised that it did not fit her disposition. As a full-time mother, she decided to compile a series of portraits of her former teachers for a jubilee volume celebrating the bicentenary of the founding of her alma mater. Although the volume never actually materialised, Zsuzsa Fábri’s decision to compile the material matured into a consistent documentary endeavour: with unique subtlety and maximum technical precision, she sought to create a photographic portrait gallery of Hungarian art and intelligentsia. The results of her photographic work—which began in 1978 and continued systematically for several years—were made public in 1984. That year, a selection of her photographs—which can be classified as environmental portraits—of prominent representatives of Hungarian visual art, literature, and science was published by Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó under the title 40 Faces – 40 Essays.

The artist portrait archive, which comprised part of Zsuzsa G. Fábri’s estate, was donated to the Photographic Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts – Central European Research Institute for Art History (ADK) at the beginning of 2024. This outstanding collection of negatives and vintage enlargements is richly supplemented with additional information. The material also includes numerous never-before-seen photographs of well-known Hungarian artists (Miklós Borsos, Amerigo Tot, Károly Gink, Károly Koffán, János Kass, Endre Bálint, Ilona Keserű, etc.). In addition to some signed, unique enlargements, the archive also includes negatives of unpublished photographs, as well as handwritten letters and messages requested by Fábri from the artists she captured, reflecting on the act of photography.

/Balázs Zoltán Tóth/