Droves turn out to see Monet exhibit, but was it just a novelty?
Interview with Miklós Mojzer, general director at Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts
written by Nancy Laforest

Throughout the past few months, lines literally circled the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts on a daily basis, as visitors spent hours waiting to get inside and view the “Monet and Friends” exhibit. Nearly 300,000 attended the exhibition – a groundbreaking number for the Hungarian arts scene. Miklós Mojzer, art historian and general director of the museum, shared his thoughts on the past exhibit and the upcoming role of museums in today’s culture.

BW A record number of people viewed the Monet exhibition, how can you explain such outstanding public interest?

Miklós Mojzer An explanation for the large number of visitors is opportunity. Impressionism is a living theme, and it still has an actuality, more than 100 years after the foundation of the impressionist movement itself. The Hungarian public saw Viennese exhibitions of this standard before, among them Monet and Cézanne exhibits, which created a good impression in the direction of the impressionists in the Hungarian public. There was an eagerness, an awareness in the direction of the impressionist movement. The impressionists have a strange tradition in Hungarian art history, and at the beginning of the 20th century there were some good impressionist exhibitions here in Budapest. This latest exhibit, “Monet and Friends,” was an opportunity to taste the impressionist movement, and not just in written history but in the works themselves.

BW Do you think the high number of visitors was based on genuine interest in this movement, and in art in general, or because of the attention and publicity surrounding the exhibit?

Miklós Mojzer The publicity helped, but I thought it quite crazy that the Hungarian press associated the high number of visitors with something historical. The large number of people visiting the exhibition was not history. But it was considered a groundbreaking exhibit, and consequently it became, of course, fashionable. Snobbism was also partly responsible for the high turnout. There was a self-propelled propaganda with this exhibition, as it became an everyday conversation topic, which is very rare. Schools came from the farthest places in Hungary, and so had a lot of visitors from beyond the borders as well, from Transylvania, Slovakia, Serbia, Austria, or Italy.

BW Will the popularity of Monet and Friends kick-start the Hungarian art scene and will art become a staple of discussion?

Miklós Mojzer Art is not a common conversation theme in Hungary. The visual arts here are not so developed that there should be heated conversations or debates about it. In art education, it meant something of course, because many schools came and paid a visit. I don’t think the exhibition’s effects can be quite that far-reaching because it was, after all, only an exhibition. But did it have the force, the strength, to make people talk about art more? I don’t think so. It is more important that many visitors felt they need another visit or another opportunity.

BW You said it was only an exhibit, but will it meant something more in terms of museum culture?

Miklós Mojzer It helped the museum culture very much. You see, the music culture, or theater, are very popular, and very populated too. In museums, perhaps the general culture is not so spread or common. During this exhibition, however, there was never a decreasing trend, and there was always, from the very beginning until the end, an increasing growth in figures.

BW Will art be more accessible for Hungarians to view upon our European Union accession?

Miklós Mojzer Of course. Historically, the political and intellectual elite were not really interested in museums, but rather concentrated on theaters and movies, which were much more important at the time. But this period was important for museums as it gave an opportunity to form an international collaboration among themselves. This means that museums in the EU don’t need to establish relationships now, as they built contacts decades ago. What other institutions have to do now, has already been done in the museum world. Joining the EU is not an obstruction, but rather a connection, a close contact among art institutions.

BW What plans are in store for Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts?

Miklós Mojzer The main aim is not an ideological or abstract one. This museum would like to be on the same level as the similar large museums in the rest of Europe. Among the 10 countries that are the new members in the EU, we are the largest and the only such museum with so many international works of art.

No other capital has such a collection as we have. And that is the level we aim to, we have to, maintain. But we also need to increase, and the level we are striving for is much higher than where we are now.