Kókay Krisztina (Esztergom, 2005)
JUDIT JORY Portraits and drawings About Krisztina Kókaij The mountain, the tower, the bell, the wall and the garden Pauline Holseel The unfinished novel of fiction, "Pauline Holseel", was written by the painter, Lajos Gulácsy. The handwritten pages of the manuscript full of esoteric characters and dreams were selected from the manuscript archives and put on computer by philologists at the end of the second Millennium. Dense, pearly handwriting and countless, formerly unknown graphic illustrations accompany the novel and make it complete. The novel, written with various kinds of inks and pencils, consists of a flood of paper and parchment. The 181 pages of confused writings are of various size and are either legible or barely discernible. The following can be read on one of the pages of the facsimile edition: "At this moment Somebody touched her shoulder, by means of which she was brought back from that world which belonged solely to her and which was beyond everyone else's comprehension - as it was she who created and filled that other realm with various, colorful realities". Krisztina Kókay's meticulous graphic illustrations and thick-stroked calligraphy with their special titles seem to make up a novel of drawings, as it were. The above quotation of Pauline Holseel's (taken from a chapter of the novel entitled: "A Sculpture of Pauline") reveals Holseel's artistic behavior when the artist leaves her enclosed "other" world (the state of complete isolation) for the sake of manifesting herself at an exhibition. Drawings of Characteristics That state of being natural, intact and harmonic placidity, quietness, freedom and discipline are all characteristics of an artist. "There exist certain sovereign individuals to whom one cannot give anything. Still they are ready to accept everything without any consequences or without being emotionally affected, just like kings naturally accepting taxes", "...she knows how to do something that is almost an unknown quality in a writer today: She is able to write quietly - as if you were having a confidential conversation with someone, only the two of you in the room...Herman Hesse could also write like this, getting immediately to the point, but without lying". The third quotation, taken from Sándor Márai's diary, again refers to Kókay's discipline and her freedom hidden on her tapestries and paper. "Kant does not believe in forcing things; he does believe, however, in the public education of society where freedom of will is retained, and where people become accustomed to exercising voluntary discipline". This characteristic is improperly referred to as self- discipline or self-control. Discipline achieved by torment, endless repetition and practice can be applied freely. Discipline and Drawing Krisztina Kókay draws with uncompelled discipline, of her own free will. She fills large-sized white pages of drawing paper with tiny gestures and repeated touches. These graphite and India ink lines come to existence from thousands of marks as a result of meticulous movements. The corner of the artist's living room - which is one meter square and contains her chair and her sketching-board - is her atelier, her studio of creativity, her asylum and her Tusculan place of rest. The artist performs her daily meditations sitting, squatting and clutching the paper in her lap, almost in an embryonic position. "As a helpless captive of her own arbitrarily chosen, closed prison she seeks relief and refuge" (JóRY). She alters the intensity and the directions of her strokes according to her current mood, her state of mind and the stimulus of the outer world. She often improvises. She tends to ponder and slows down both her inner impulses and the movements of her hand. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, with an interruption of new ideas, she makes surprising alterations. Thus a unique state of excitement seems to be triggered that can gradually turn to a relieving state of repose. Kókay is inspired by spontaneous emotions bursting forth from the depths of her being. She is being led by sad and happy memories. While her personality is introspective, she buries herself in the past and her memories of Esztergom. Thus inch-by-inch she struggles to prepare her self-torturing, brooding and analyzing drawings. This seemingly self-torturing activity is like therapy which can easily end up in a releasing catharsis and a joyful process of work.
