COURAGE

connecting collections

Ágnes Tímár (1928) is a Hungarian Cistercian abbess. She born in Újpest. In July 1944, her father, György Tímár, who was a member of Pál Demény’s communist group, was arrested. The orphan girl was raised by the Piarist monk, Ödön Lénárd, who educated her. She graduated from the Girl’s Gymnasium of the Loreto Sisters in Budapest She then studied architecture at the Technical University. She joined the Cistercian Order in 1948, but after the dissolution of the order (1950), she had to leave the Regina Mundi Monastery in Nagyesztergár. In 1953, Tímár was made an architect at the bearing factory of the IPARTERV company in Diósd. In 1955, she started to organize a Cistercian community (now located in Kismaros) with youngsters who joined her. In 1961, she was arrested along with her three sisters. They were freed in 1963 in accordance with the general amnesty. On 19 April 1966, Tímár was imprisoned again, because she allegedly had “planned a conspiracy.” She was released in in 1968, and she then organized the Cistercian monastery of the Blessed Mother of God in Kismaros. She studied theology, and her doctoral treatise was accepted by the Institute Catholique in Paris, but she was only able to travel to France to defend her doctorate in 1989. After that, she became the first Hungarian nun to hold a Doctor of Theology. In 1993, she became the abbess of the monastery in Kismaros. She resigned from this position in 2003 because she turned 75.

Albert Tódor, of Transylvanian Sekler origin, was a secondary-school teacher of mathematics, and human rights and democracy activist in both Romania and Hungary in the 1980s. He was one of the founding editors of the Hungarian samizdat periodical, Határ/idő/napló – Erdélyi figyelő (Deadline Diaries – Transylvanian Monitor), 1987–1989.

He was born in the Hungarian Sekler village of Homoródalmás (Meresti), in Romania. Having finished school there, he went on to study in Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuiesc), and then in Kolozsvár (Cluj/Clausenburg), where he received an MA in Mathematics at Babes-Bolyai University. In 1984 he moved to Hungary and took a job teaching secondary school in Budapest. In the meantime, he remained active in human rights and charity movements, especially those aiding Romanian residents or emigres. He was one of the main organizers and founders of Transylvania Caritas, Deadline Diaries and S.O.S. (Save Our Settlements) Transylvania, an international solidarity movement to protect thousands of multicultural villages threatened by the demolition plans of Romanian despot, Nicolae Ceausescu, in 1987–89.

Art historian. Graduated from the Art History and History departments of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 1983. Between 1983 and 1984, he was a museologist at the Petőfi Literary Museum. Between 1984 and 1986, he served as a curator at the Gallery of Szombathely, and he was cofounder of its contemporary collection. Since 1986, he has worked as a museologist at the Modern Department of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. Between 1995 and 2000, he served as head of department.

At the beginning of his academic career, Tóth focused on new visual forms in 20^th-century Hungarian and international art. In 1984–1985, together with his wife Marianna Mayer, he developed the contemporary collection of the newly founded Gallery of Szombathely and organized its first permanent exhibition. They intended to create an institution that would meet contemporary international standards, and they therefore cooperated with the progressive artists of domestic art. When Tóth started to work in the Museum of Fine Arts, he was responsible for the contemporary collection of the Modern Department. He wrote several studies on domestic and international experimental art (photo, film, computer graphics, etc.)

From the mid-1990s, he started to focus on late 19^th-century art, particularly symbolism and art nouveau and the development of contemporary art institutions. He was one of the main organizers of the first national competition in computer graphics in June 1986 (Digitart), and he curated the following exhibition, complete with relevant international material, in the Museum of Fine Arts. He was the curator of the permanent exhibition based on the 20^th-century collection of the museum opened in 1990 and then in 1996. He also organized the exhibition “Art at the turn of the century” in 2004. He was also curator of several temporary exhibitions (for instance Digitart, Henry Moore, Alfred Manessier, Felix Droese, Bernard Schultze, Return of Corneille, and Land of Myths – Painting of Gustave Moreau) in the Museum of Fine Arts and the Villa Vasary in Balatonfüred.

Ilona Tóth (née Szűcs, b. Oradea, 23 July 1958) is a Hungarian Transylvanian dissident, who now lives in Sweden. After graduating high school she married Antal Károly Tóth in 1977. In the couple’s life, the activity of the Ady Endre Literary Circle in Oradea played an important role. From 1980 until the fall of 1982, Ilona and her husband, as members of the seven-member directory board, participated intensively in the activities of this literary circle. In 1980, the Tóths also supported the initiative to launch a Hungarian cultural magazine in Oradea – an idea that eventually proved unsuccessful. They took part in a nationwide effort to collect signatures, which involved travelling to various places (Cluj, Baia Mare, Satu Mare, Carei, Valea lui Mihai, Săcueni) and asking local public figures to support the initiative by providing their signatures.

In 1982, the Tóths, alongside with poet Géza Szőcs and other contributors, took part in the editing and distribution of the samizdat known as Ellenpontok (Counterpoints), founded by the philosopher Attila Ara-Kovács. The first five issues were edited by Ara-Kovács, and Ilona Tóth helped with making copies. The seventh and eighth issues were reproduced by the Tóth couple in fifty copies in their underground flat, using stencils of paper and a Polish “ramka” duplicator. The eighth issue, of October 1982, which includes the “Memorandum” and the “Programme Proposal,” was edited by Antal Károly Tóth alone. It should be mentioned that during the consultations regarding the “Programme Proposal,” Géza Szőcs proposed several modifications, which were registered in writing by Ilona Tóth.

As a consequence of the Ellenpontok Case,Ilona Tóth’s later life was determined by the various phases of the couple’s emigration – Hungary: July 1984 to March 1988; Sweden: March 1988 to March 1989; Canada: March to December 1989; Sweden: December 1989 to present. Following their final resettlement, Ilona, after completing language courses in Swedish and English, worked as a kindergarten nurse for several years at various nursery schools. Later she studied socionomy and religion at the University of Gothenburg, and today she works for the social services department.