Hincz Gyula színházi munkássága 1928 És 1947 Között

The art history of scenic design is a peripheral field in Hungarian research. Within this field, the least attention is paid to is paid to the life of smaller theatres between and behind the avant-garde theatrical experiments and the scenic activities of the great theatres, the life of smaller theatres between and behind the scenic activities of the great theatres, which is the subject of this paper. No detailed summary of the prolific and diverse oeuvre of painter, graphic artist and designer Gyula Hincz (1904– 1986) has yet been written, so this paper attempts to fill a research gap from two perspectives at once. Gyula Hincz’s early activities as a set designer are limited to three short and distinctly different periods. The first period (1928–1929) covers three designs for three plays. It begins with expressionistic stage sets and ends, with a seemingly rapid change of approach, with constructive, buildable designs. A major catalyst in this change seems to be his acquaintance with László Moholy-Nagy, which can be linked to Hincz’s exhibition at the Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin (December 1928). The second period (1931–1932) is limited to one completed play ( House of the Happy , New Theatre). Despite the proximity in time to the previous period, the artist’s approach to his sets was quite different. This is partly due to a significant caesura in the life path, the period of the Rome Scholarship, which also had a completely transformative effect on Hincz’s art. The difficult-to-re-construct sets, however, do not allow for the identification of the influences received. In any case, the ‘sign-like, minimal’, ‘constructivist’ sets did not provoke the taste of the contemporary public. The third period (1946–1947) consists of two works with diametrically opposed approaches. The first is the production of Mice and Men at the Madách Theatre, in which Picasso’s influence and the worldwide spread of expressive tendencies seem to have dominated the design, but in this case too we have little information about the set. The second work, which remained in the planning stage, consists of perhaps the most purely and strictly constructivist scenery designs by Gyula Hincz. All in all, we can say that these are high-quality works of art, which ascribe Gyula Hincz an outstanding place in the history of Hungarian stage design.