Béla Czóbel (1883-1976) is one of the few Hungarian painters who enjoyed international recognition in his life. From a young age he lived as a citizen of the world: In 1902, at the age of 19 he began studying painting in Nagybánya, however, in 1903 he enrolled at the Julian Academy in Paris. He recognized the significance of new trends in painting, he showed together with Fauves artists, befriended Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Dunoyer de Segonzac, he was connected to the Dutch and German art scene, he sympathized especially with German Expressionist artists. His managed to sell his pictures even as a young artist. There were some who specifically collected his works in Paris, the Netherlands, the United States and in Berlin, too.. During his adventurous career he moved several times, had to flee, sometimes his images disappeared. Consequently, only a portion is known of his oeuvre.

The Ferenczy Museum, therefore, has started an unprecedented, massive organizing work. They launched 55 loan applications to various major foreign and Hungarian private and public collections so that they can reconstruct the Czóbel oeuvre the fullest possible way. Nearly 200 paintings and graphics were put together, some from the Pompidou Centre in Paris, one from a renowned private collector of Chicago. The collection also includes paintings he did in the Netherlands, which have not been included either Hungarian or foreign exhibitions in the past 100 years. When the curators contacted the Buchheim Museum in Bernried about the specific work of art, it was discovered that three other Czóbel Expressionist paintings were owned by the museum- not known even for the profession . These will all be shown at the MűvészetMalom. Other surprises are also waiting those visiting in the exhibition in Szentendre, because on the back of a painting he painted in the Netherlands held by the Czóbel Museum's collection an unknown painting was discovered, painted in red paint.

Although Béla Czóbel was the first Hungarian painter to whom an independent museum was designated in his life - in Szentendre, on Church Hill - a similar exhibition to that at the MűvészetMalom with a complete showing of the artist's oeuvre has not been held since the one at the Art Gallery in 1971. However, the exhibition organized by the Ferenczy Museum does not mean that the smaller museum showing the art of Béla Czóbel will be emptied. The permanent exhibition in one of the most beautiful spots in town and the exhibition at MűvészetMalom that is to open on May. 31-will provide a new understanding of the Czóbel oeuvre. A 200-page catalogue documenting the exhibition, which invites the reader to have a look at various eras of the artist's oeuvre will aid to the scientific processing of the entire oeuvre.