Hugó Mund

Hugó Mund (1892-1961), a Jewish painter, was born in the town of Dés, then part of Hungary (today Dej, Romania). He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, and every summer he worked at the art colony of Baia Mare. That is where he met his wife, Gizella Dömötör, who was also a painter. The couple lived in Budapest, Oradea, and Baia Mare. However, in 1931, they decided to continue their lives in South America, where Mund worked as a librarian.

His art was inspired by the colourist naturalism of Károly Ferenczy and by the construction of decorative paintings of Béla Iványi Grünwald. This was followed by a classicist phase. In Mund’s works we can notice the statuesquely illustrated motifs of Baia Mare, but at the same time his paintings were defined by lines and tones. His nudes and still lifes were inspired by modernist French artists, such as Cézanne.