Allegro Barbaro. Béla Bartók and Hungarian Modernity 1905 -1920

Continuing with events at the Musée d’Orsay on great figures in modern music – Mahler and Debussy - this exhibition will give the French public an opportunity to discover a particularly vibrant period in Hungarian cultural and artistic life, through Béla Bartók (1881-1945), the man and his music.

In the early 20th century, musicians and painters in Hungary shared a desire to seek new forms of expression and a renewal with tradition. Breaking new ground within the European avant-garde, in just a few years they created their own distinctive idiom, a modernity imbued with the traditions of Hungary.

With around one hundred paintings from public collections in Hungary and from private collections, including numerous documents relating to the young Bartók and to the musicians, composers, writers, poets, philosophers and psychoanalysts in his circle (musical scores, photographs, films, archive recordings, etc), the exhibition aims to revive this rich dialogue between music and the arts from early 20th century Hungary.

This exhibition takes place under the high patronage of Monsieur François Hollande, President of the French Republic, and János Áder, President of the Republic of Hungary.