The collection of the “Baia Mare Artistic Centre” County Art Museum, is unique in Romania for two main reasons. Firstly, it preserves the legacy of a non-metropolitan painting school, and secondly, it provides a comprehensive overview of the history and artistic work of the colony established in 1896 and operating, with occasional interruptions, to the present day.
With its picturesque surroundings and welcoming community, Baia Mare captured the hearts and imaginations of many artists, and became renowned, both domestically and internationally, initially as a hub for plein-air painters and later as a breeding ground for more revolutionary movements, firmly establishing itself as a city of painters. In a period of over more than a century since the founding of the colony, the city has served as a bustling arts scene, attracting over 3,000 artists from around the world seeking inspiration.
In May 1896, Simon Hollósy (1857-1918), assisted by Károly Ferenczy (1862-1917), István Réti (1872-1945), János Thorma (1870) and Béla Iványi-Grünwald (1867-1940) started a private school of painting in Baia Mare to provide an alternative to the academic style. The Hollósy School (1896-1901), which operated in Munich in the winter and in Baia Mare in the summer, promoted the centuries-old tradition of professional training in non-metropolitan areas as well, perpetuating the ideal of the Baia Mare school, albeit under different names and institutional frameworks. Similarly to other great European schools of the 19th century, such as Barbizon and Pont-Aven in France, St. Ives in Great Britain, or Szolnok and Kecskemét in Hungary, the colony welcomed pupils periodically but on a constant basis. Following the European model, the creative development of the school took a conservative and an innovative direction simultaneously. The diversity of creative expression, content and styles, and the vigorous exchanges of thoughts and ideas contributed to the transcultural nature of the colony and led to the formation of the Baia Mare Artistic Centre, or the Baia Mare ideal as know today.
