The Paper Side of Art

Eight Centuries of Drawings and Prints in the Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest This jubilee album settles a long overdue debt, and allows readers to pay simultaneous tribute to eight centuries of international drawn and printed art, to the entry into state ownership, a century and a half ago, of a remarkable aristocratic art collection, and to the earnest efforts to expand the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, that have continued ever since. This volume contains a wide selection of the finest drawings and prints that are held in the Museum, focusing on the centuries-old traditions of the genre, its incessant ability to renew itself, its technical diversity, and its varied solutions of form. The more than 500 prints and drawings that are reproduced on these pages offer the most powerful evidence of the inseparability between thought and creativity, which is unquestionably the most valuable function of art.