Exhibition of selected works of Hungarian painter Józsa Jaritz

For the first time in the United States a unique collection of paintings and graphics by Józsa Jaritz were exhibited on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at the Bel Air Crest Clubhouse. The exhibition was opened by Ambassador Balázs Bokor, Consul General to Los Angeles. In his remarks the Consul General presented the curriculum of Józsa Jaritz and demonstrated on the round fifty various pictures how her style has developed.

Consul General Balázs Bokor with Lourdes Saab, Chief of Protocol of Los Angeles County

Jaritz was born in Budapest, and visited high school in Dresden, Germany. Later she enrolled in a well known art school in Budapest, where she was given the honor to participate at an exhibit together with her teacher, the great János Vaszary. In 1922 she had a joint exhibition with renowned Hungarian painters, István Csók, József Rippl-Rónai, and János Vaszary. In 1924 she had her very own exhibit in the most prestigious National Gallery. That was a great triumph for a young person and especially woman in those times…

Julius Bulyovszky and Balázs Bokor in front of the “Gipsy Mona Lisa”

Between the two World Wars she began to travel extensively. In the late thirties she returned home and settled in the countryside. By that time she had established her very own style. She became interested in the life of the peasants and simple country people who work in the fields. After the Second World War the political atmosphere was unfavorable for her and she lived in a relative anonymity. Except for few small exhibitions she lived in a great privacy.

Charcoal drawings

When Józsa Jaritz died in 1986, there was an article in a paper written by Zsófia Dénes, a well known Hungarian literary and art critic: “Józsa Jaritz’s art and style in the art of painting might be compared to what Kodály and Bartók meant in the world of music, because she also had introduced new color harmonies, unique to her and very expressive in manner, however little understood during the early 30’s and 40’, just like Bartók was…”

Selected paintings

Early 2010 an exclusive exhibition will be organized from the works of Jozsa Jaritz in one of the museums of Los Angeles.