Gyula Czimra is one of the most unique and distinctive artists in the history of Hungarian painting. In 2025 the Hungarian National Gallery will present a full retrospective exhibition at the 120th anniversary of the artist’s birth. The exhibition presents his works from 1924 to 1965, ranging from Romantic Realism to Post-Impressionism, Fauve, then under the influence of naïve art, and later Novecento, to Decorative Realism, Symbolist Metaphysics, Geometric, Puritan sculptural frescoes and still lifes, radiating the ultimate in simplicity. Most of his works were produced in the 1920s, 30s, 50s and 60s, but by international standards he painted a significant part of his oeuvre in the last ten years of his life. The artist was a loner and an artist in his own right, but the quality of his work, its clarity and conciseness, made him one of the most important Hungarian artists of the twentieth century. ‘He was a severe self-critic, and destroyed or repainted a great many of his works,’ recalled the artist’s wife. His oeuvre is thus just under 300 works, of which almost 180 paintings, sculptures, prints and tapestries are on show.
