ALBERT Ádám: My Appropriations (Mihály Munkácsy), 2022

2 enamel panels: 50 x 70 cm and 50 x 11 cm, mounted on hollow structural section

overall dimensions: 94 x 50 cm

The estate of Mihály MUNKÁCSY (1844–1900) constitutes the oldest part—and perhaps one of the most valuable portions—of the KEMKI ADK collection. In addition to the documents, it also contains his relics: his furniture, the plaster cast of his right hand, his palette, his mourning ribbon, and the silver laurel wreath given to Mihály Munkácsy in 1882 by his fellow artists along with the National Hungarian Society of Fine Arts (KEMKI ADK Inv. No. 4003/1941)—which, in the present work, appears as a silhouette. The collection also includes the artist’s paintbrushes (KEMKI ADK 4018/1941). In the background of the composition, we see an excerpt from the correspondence in which Munkácsy described the story of his life to Madame Chaplin (1841–1920) in 1889 (KEMKI ADK 20063/1978, p. 44). Albert, in essence, “explains” and annotates the single, “illustrated” page—a fragment of Munkácsy’s life—while isolating it from its original context of the correspondence, and adding artist-attributes as pictograms. He renders the object unique and amplifies its “professional sacralism”, creating a memento: he places the coloured, enlarged page on the solid foundation of the paintbrush, and applies the “watermark” of the laurel wreath to it. The two-part composition, held together by a metal structure and authenticated by the painter’s props—oscillating somewhere between the form/function of a plaque and a certificate—simultaneously evokes the cult that surrounds the artist and the archives that preserve its memorabilia.