The Estate of Lajos Vajda

Lajos Vajda (1908–1941) was a prominent figure of the Hungarian avantgarde who did not receive the recognition he deserved during his short lifetime. His wife, Julia Vajda, spent her entire life trying to rectify this, not only in Hungary, but in Europe as well. It was thanks to her perseverance that the majority of his artworks, which were known only to a close circle of friends and professionals, were eventually transferred to the Lajos Vajda Museum in Szentendre (founded in 1986). After Julia Vajda’s passing, her daughter, Vera Jakovits, and her daughter’s husband, Gyula Kozák, became the custodians of the documents (which had been kept at home), who subsequently transferred the estate to the ADK archives of the Museum of Fine Arts – Central European Research Institute for Art History. These were the documents that Stefánia Mándy used for writing the Vajda monograph published in 1983. Among the written sources, special mention should be given to the letters and postcards written to Julia Vajda between 1936 and 1941, most of which were published by Jakovits and Kozák in 1996. Also of great interest are the three notebooks used by the artist in the 1920s and 1930s—referred to as the Checkered Notebooks—along with various small pieces of paper with notes on them reflecting Vajda’s interests and thoughts behind his works. Among the photographs that comprise part of the estate, those that had served a starting point for some of his works, along with pictures of his siblings and his father’s family, are also of special significance. Beyond the photographs, manuscripts, and contemporary sources, the collection also includes documents relating to the reception history of Vajda’s art, such as exhibition invitations, exhibition reviews, and literature on Vajda’s art, which has been growing steadily since the 1970s.

/Judit Radák/