Moses Statue Presented to Krisztus Kiraly Catholic Church

 After 16 months of planning and preparation the Moses statue created by Nándor Wagner has been placed at Krisztus Király catholic church in Dunaujváros on the 16th of April.

Afternoon 15:00; the placement was completed

The name of Nándor Wagner is well-known in this city, which had the name Sztálinváros in the 1950-ies. His fountain composition Girl with Water Jar and Eight Frogs was the very first statue in that city, placed in 1954. The name of the city needs an explanation. This agricultural settlement was esteblished around the 10th century, and named Pentele after Saint Pantaleon. Due to the movement that Hungary should become the country of iron and steel during the socialist period the greenfield construction of a new industrial city started in 1949. The combined settlement was renamed Sztálinváros (Stalin City) in 1951. But after the Hungarian revolution of 1956 the new government gave the name Dunaújváros in 1961.

Girl with Water Jar and Eight Frogs

His wife Mrs. Chiyo Wagner paid several visit here. She was pleased to note that the fountain composition of her husband attracting so many young mother with children, that it was almost difficult to take a clean photo of it. The books written about Nándor were presented by her to the local József Attila library. 

The year 2019 brought the 150th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations with Japan and Mrs. Chiyo Wagner offered the Moses statue of her husband to commemorate the jubilee.

Nándor Baltási catholic parish priest has never heard about the Moses statue created by Nándor Wagner but he knew very well the Girl with Water Jar and Eight Frogs fountain's popularity. After a proper introduction by Tibor Bráda recognized painter and glass artist Nándor Baltási parish priest doubts arose that he could receive the statue as a gift. The church is a modern one constructed between 1993 and 2000, but they could not afford valuable art objects, so such a great gift finally was welcomed. Placing a statue of Moses is a sensitive matter, but it can be very effective in the right place, as in front of the main entrance. After having signed the contract between the Krisztus Király catholic church and Mrs. Chiyo Wagner it took 10 months to realize the placement. Please follow the placement in photos step by step  as below:

7:30; Pedestal arrived

9:18; Pedestal completed

Opening the wooden box at Dunagép Zrt. 

11:31; Statue of Moses was delivered to the main entrance of the church

Standing up Moses

Side view (photo: László Szundy)

15:00; Fixing the statue

Perfect placement! Working teams at the Moses statue

(photos: Sándor Kiss)

More (in Hungarian):

- Moses came from Japan to the Catholic church by DUOL news portal

- Pedestal adjustment DUOL photo galery

- Sculpture erection DUOL photo galery

Spring Exhibition in Mashiko

 Despite of pandemic Mashiko has remained relatively safe place. It made possible to organize the spring exhibition at Wagner Nándor Art Gallery this season as well. The main topic is the statue of Moses created by Nándor Wagner in 1993. His statue placed on the side of the road of his studio frequently grabs the eye of the visitors. 

The poster of the Spring Exhibition

The exhibition space in Pentagon Gallery was given to the works of Wakabayashi Takae tapestry artist. A few samples of the collection can be seen here (auto play).

The Spring Exhibition is open from 15th of April to 15th of May, 2021.

Visitors are welcomed from 10:00 to 15:00. Closed on all Mondays.

Spring Exhibition in Mashiko

This spring brings an exhibition of Nándor Wagner's stainless steel statues, remarkable Eternity which was created in Sweden. The Wagner Nándor Art Gallery will show his creative pieces, some of them for the first time.

Poster of Spring Exhibition

The exhibition space in Pentagon Gallery will be given to the statues of SHIMA Tsuyoshi (島剛) sculptor, professor at Ibaraki University's Faculty of Education and Art Major. His collection is titled Dunamis.

The Spring Exhibition is open from 15th of April to 15th of May, 2020. Closed on all Mondays.

Atumn Exhibition In Mashiko

The autumn exhibition will focus on the statues of Wagner Nandor. The accompanying exhibition in the Pentagon Gallery will show tapestry by Emiko WATANABE textile artist.

It will open on 16th of October and last day of the exhibition is 15th of November. Exhibition is closed for visitors on all Mondays.

The poster of the exhibition

Location: Mashiko, Mashiko, Haga District, Tochigi Prefecture 321-4217, Japán

Spring Exhibition in Mashiko

This year is the 20th anniversary of passing away of sculptor Nándor Wagner. All programs in 2017 will be devoted to his life and art. The Wagner Nándor Art Gallery will show his creating activity with quite a few items which were not on display so far.

 Poster of Spring Exhibition

The exhibition space in Pentagon Gallery will be given to Inui Tsuyoshi (乾 剛) photo artist`s new collection titled "Four seasons in the garden of Wagner Nándor". Here you can see some of his photos.

The Spring Exhibition is open from 15th of April to 15th of May, 2017 except all Mondays.

Season's Greetings

Dear Readers we wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Statue Mother Earth in Sapporo

Photo: Koji Akiyama 2016

National Day of Mourning was remembered at Corpus Hungaricum

It was 167 years ago when 13 Hungarian generals were executed in Arad by the order of Austrian general Julius Jacob von Haynau. They are known as Martyrs of Arad.  Prime Minister Count Lajos Batthyány was executed the same day in Pest. 6th of October has been a national day of mourning since long in Hungary.

Due to rain yesterday a silent remembering ceremony took place at Nándor Wagner's Corpus Hungaricum in Székesfehérvár. After the national anthem had played wrenches of city Székesfehérvár, the local military regiment, civil organizations, Academia Humana Foundation, a Polish group and civilians were placed at live martial music.

 Silent ceremony without words in rain

 Placing the wrench of Academia Humana Foundation

The program remembering and recalling of the 1849 sorrowful events was performed by the theater company and choir of the II. Rákóczi Ferenc elementary school inside at their gymnasium.

Full attention of school children 

 School theater company performed the program

Choir

For sake of memory: Sándor Kiss, Sándor Kálmán, László Szundy

Spring Exhibition in Mashiko with Lotus Lectures

2016 spring exhibition combines Wagner Nandor's art pieces showing dancers and lotus the praised plant of East. It is a new initiative that art and history, taking care of lotus will be combined. The lotus expert of Utsunomiya Mr. Yōzō Innami will give a series of lectures. The exhibition will open from 15th of April and visitors can enjoy it until 15th of May.

Poster of the Exhibition with terracotta figurine of famous dancer Han Takehara 

The lotus which woke up after 460 years later.
A group of enthusiastic lotus lovers headed by Mr. Innami unearthed 80 seeds by research excavation from the old Lotus pond (hasuike) of Utsunomiya castle which was filled in centuries ago. Utsunomiya Castle Old Hasuike Revival Exploratory Committee made a fruitful harvest by picking the seeds from the enormous volume of old clay. It was possible to make bloom first flower by Mr. Innami who is passionate collector of lotus. He succeeded to germinate some seeds and brought them up to flowering plant after 3 years. It's revealed that the lotus which bloomed is 1550-1850 time actually by dating by radiation. The lotus was named after him as Inami lotus.

Mr. Innami posing with flowering lotus named after him.

The flower

The front page of Newsletter of Utsunomiya Lotus Club showing the genetic heritage of Innami lotus and poster of Mashiko spring exhibition

Mr. Innami presented a white lotus to Mr. Nandor Wagner many years ago. 
It brings flowers since then.

Happy New Year!

Dear Readers with
 Season's Best Greetings 

we wish you

good health, happiness and success 

for the New Year!

Autumn in Mashiko.

Entrance of Wagner Nandor Foundation.

Atumn Exhibition In Mashiko

The coming exhibition will focus on the storage of Wagner Nandor's models on display in the basement of his Art Gallery. The accompanying exhibition in the Pentagon Gallery will show the art pieces of Ms. Yoko Ugachi, who is a wooden sculptor. Her favorite theme is the motherhood.

Poster of the Atumn Exhibition  

Sculptor Ugachi in action

more about her in Japanese:

http://www16.plala.or.jp/ugati/

http://homepage2.nifty.com/welcome~/youko/

Motherhood Project

Please be invited to unveiling ceremony of Motherhood statue 
Time: 11:00 on Friday, 5th of June, 2015
Place: Miskolc, Szigethy Mihály út 8.

Program (45 minutes):

• Welcome
• Opening speech by dr. Ákos Kriza Mayor of Miskolc
• Greeting speech by H.E. Junichi Kosuge Ambassador of Japan 
• “Motherhood” statue by Tibor Wehner art historian
• Short program presented by the students of the school including a 5 minute video about Nándor Wagner and his art showing love for mothers
• Presenting the statue to the school by Ms. Chiyo Wagner, founding President of Academia Humana Foundation, honorary President of Wagner Nándor Memorial Foundation in Japan 
• Unveiling ceremony 
• Thanks and appreciation by Ms. Antónia Orsolya Zsúdel director of the school 

Background. Several outstanding statues had been sculpted by Nándor Wagner in his Budapest atelier at Castle Bazar (Várbazár) between 1951 and 1956. According to documents held in the archive of the Advisory Office for Fine Arts, he was awarded a contract in winter 1955 to carve a limestone sculpture with the title Motherhood or Nursing Mother. The plaster model of the statue, which was to be erected in the garden of the Budapest-Albertfalva crèche, was ready by summer of 1956. The contract was signed with the artist on 14th September 1956 to implement the sculpture. Soon the Hungarian Revolution gave a short freedom to citizens of Hungary. Durning the twelve days of Revolution, Nándor Wagner was elected a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Hungarian Association of Artists. When the Revolution had fallen and the wave of arrests had started Nándor Wagner had to flee from Hungary with his family. After a brief stay in Vienna they left for Sweden. History was to foil the implementation of similar plans, including statue Motherhood. However it was not clear for a good period of time what was the fate of the statue? 

This is the only photo we found.
Motherhood plaster model placed in the background with Attila József the poet.

Saving the statue. To Nándor Wagner’s luck, his semi finished works and finished ones from his atelier had been saved by his museum friends after he left Hungary and had been deposited in a storeroom of the King Saint Stephen Museum of Székesfehérvár which alas to say later suffered several flooding. For a long period it was believed that his saved art pieces went by the board, but in 2009 almost 50 items were found among them the plaster model of Motherhood.

At that time we have decided to save the statue by carving it into stone and presenting it to a healthcare educational institute. Székesfehérvár commemorated Saint Stephen the first Hungarian king in the year 2013. On this occasion chamber exhibition titled "Wagner statue-artifact in Székesfehérvár" at King Saint Stephen Museum has been organized to show a bit of history related to art and activity for the city by Nándor Wagner. The exhibition was a great success. A visitor informed us that she knew the lost statue which had been placed silently, with no publicity at all on the premises of Albertfalva kindergarten, which is now the Down syndrome day-boarding facility, a closed institute. We have inspected that statue, and as its condition has been deteriorated much over 50+ years we made a decision to go ahead with the project in 2014.

Presentation of the statue
Ferenczi Sándor Healthcare Vocational School in Miskolc was selected from the nominated ones to be presented by Nándor Wagner’s work the nursing mother. School has no large artwork at her premises.

Ferenczi Sándor Healthcare Vocational School

It was established in 1957 and since then had been developed continuously. Their curriculum includes all clinics and hospital nursing. Quite a few reforms were implemented in 1975, 1977 and 1990 respectively. The school was participating at several competitions and tenders and won support from PHARE, EU educational health funds and Hungarian government funds as well. They joined Leonardo da Vinci program collaborating and exchanging experimental and mobility knowledge with 6-8 EU countries since 1997. The school was growing and by integration had to operate a second teaching unit. They won the bronze medal of the For Outstanding Quality Public Education movement in 2002. After five year period being in unsatisfactory school conditions the new building was opened in February 2007. The new school building complex was designed by Csaba Bodonyi DLA an internationally renowned architect. Now they are following HEFOP-3.1.2. the Competence Based Education, a Hungarian government organized operative development programme. The school is the largest of its kind in the Eastern Hungarian region and has one thousand students. We do hope they will like the statue Motherhood.

Spring Exhibition in Mashiko with Concerts

This spring exhibition combines Wagner Nandor's art pieces and music. Series of concerts will bring special atmosphere to his atelier and to the small Pentagon exhibition room. Pianist Akuzawa Masayuki who studied at Academy of Music in Budapest and his partner Shirasa Takefumi cellist will give the first concert in the atelier on 18th of April. The Tochigi musician students will play on various instruments at 14 more concerts between 19th of April and 15th of May.

For spring exhibition all statues were cleaned and shined. 

Happy New Year!

With Season's Best Greetings we wish our Readers good health, happiness and success for 2015!

Nandor Wagner: Miyamoto Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵, 1584 –1645) was outstanding Japanese ambidextrous swordsman.  He refined the two-sword technique. As rōnin he excelled in swordsmanship and was winner in numerous duels. He was the founder of the Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship after his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku.  After finishing fights in 1633 he started to paint and to write. Both calligraphies and classic ink paintings created by him are recognized masterpieces. His Book of Five Rings (五輪の書 Go Rin No Sho) on strategy, tactics, and philosophy has been studied even today. Nandor Wagner was found of his individual way and fights and he felt a resemblance with his own life. He studied Miyamoto Musashi's philosophy.

Spring Exhibition in Mashiko

The Spring Exhibition will focus on two main topics remembering a soldier and Nandor's horse works respectively. First topic: Hiroo Onoda died aged 91 this January. He was the wartime Japanese officer who surrendered only in 1974, having hunkered down in the jungles of Guam island. His faithfulness, loyalty and steadfastness was recognized by our foundation and he was presented the "Freeing the Crane" sculpted by Nandor Wagner.

  The poster of  Spring Exhibition showing the statue Freeing the Crane

Second topic: the art pieces which will be exhibited are selected from Nandor Wagner's horse related works. This year is the Year of the Horse - Uma Toshi - in Japan following the Asian Zodiac. The garden of the Wagner Nandor Art Gallery has been refurbished last autumn.

  Horses in the renewed garden

Pentagon Exhibition room will show the illustrations made by Ikuyo Nakada for the book of Yukio Narushima titled Konohana Sakuyamhime, which has been published in Hungary by Phyteas Book Manufactory last November.

 

Ikuyo Nakada the illustrator at the book presentation in Hungary.

Season's Greetings

With the snowy photo of Mother Earth in Budapest we would like to wish all our readers
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Autumn Exhibition in Mashiko

This autumn the Mashiko Wagner Nandor Exhibition will be held from 15th of October to 15th of November. The topic is to show the Hungarian period of the sculptor. More or less parallel the Szekesfehervar Exhibition is going on and photos from that exhibition will be displayed as well. 

Hungarian Heritage Prize goes to Nándor Wagner

We have received a letter, which reads as follows:
 
"It is my pleasure to inform you that our Appraising Committee of Hungarian Heritage and Europe Society based on initiatives made by civilians has decided to grant

HUNGARIAN HERITAGE PRIZE
to
WAGNER NÁNDOR
sculptor
The Presentation Ceremony will be held at the Grand Assembly Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on Saturday 21st of September, 2013.

Dr. Hámori József
President"



The moments of the Ceremony

 Ms. Chiyo Wagner, Mr. Mihály Pál sculptor and Ms. Réka Gabriella Kiss interpreter.

 Just a little chat with Mr. Sándor Kiss before the opening ceremony.

 The ceiling of the Grand Assembly Hall

 Appreciation speech by Mr. Mihály Pál sculptor who knew and visited
Nándor Wagner and his atelier in the 1950-ies

 Appreciation speech was supported by slide show. (watch it here, in Hungarian)

 The Hungarian Heritage Prize was presented by Dr. Annamária Zelényi Vice President

 Round of applause.

 Certificate of Merit reads:
"For his Statuary Integrating Cultures
Nándor Wagner sculptor
was honoured by
Hungarian Heritage Prize"

For sake of Memory

 Moments of happiness.

 Congratulation!
Ms. Chiyo Wagner and Professor József Hámori