March 28, 2023 marked the 150th anniversary of Nagy István's birth. The Szekler Museum of Ciuc opened its major exhibition this year on this occasion, which can be visited until August 30. The curators of the exhibition are the art historian Sebestyén-György Székely, director of the Quadro gallery in Cluj, and the art historian Eszter Túros, museologist of the Szekler Museum of Ciuc.

The purpose of the exhibition is to provide a comprehensive picture of the artist's life path, of this exceptional work, through the genres cultivated by Nagy István and through his characteristic creative periods. The exhibition presents almost 200 works, selected from the works of Hungarian and Romanian museums and of the largest private collectors.

A great artist lived among us, whom even today we do not know well. A great artist lived among us, about whom we speak only in superlatives. The anniversary made it opportune to organize an exhibition that, in addition to its monumentality, also tries to reconcile the above duality, seeing behind the myths that weigh on the art of Nagy István the development of the artist struggling under the pressure of history, difficult existential conditions and a disease of more and more excruciating, in the space of the life story along the time coordinates.

István Nagy worked hard. The arrangement of the exhibition, within the limits of the possibilities offered by the space, reflects the density and dynamics of his work, his art being made between two safe points, the figure of the mother and the artist's little son, as well as the tangible reality of his native village and the Transylvanian landscapes painted from memory in the last period of his work.

Houses. Hays. Wood, landscapes, portraits, still lives. It is difficult to find exact words for his art. Since he himself was a narrow-spoken, words do not bring you close to his pictures. They captivate us with their elemental power, with their "monumental fallibility."

Partners of the Szekler Museum of Ciuc in creating the exhibition are: the Türr István Museum (Baja, Hungary), the Mission Art Gallery (Budapest, Hungary), the Quadro Gallery (Cluj-Napoca), the Liszt Institute (Sfântu Gheorghe) and the Nagy István Art College from Miercurea Ciuc.