A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 50. (2011)

MŰVÉSZETTÖRTÉNET - GODA Gertrud: Jószay Zsolt. A szobrász és alkotásai

Jószay Zsolt, a szobrász és alkotásai 497 ZSOLT JÓSZAY THE SCULPTOR AND HIS WORKS OF ART Keywords: intellectual workshop, autonomy, apprehension of the „time", emotional and mental impletion, torso and application, the statue as the mirror of present Zsolt Jószay was born in Szolnok, 1951. He graduated from the teacher-training college of Eger in a legendary and lucky period, between 1970 and 1974. His professors were János Blaskó and János Seres artists. As he would have liked to become a sculptor from the beginning, he did not get any professional instructions in spite of the well-meaningless of his teachers. He had almost to study on his own entirely. It was Lajos Dargay, the kinetic sculptor who acquainted the students of Eger with the contemporary western art (Párizsi Magyar Műhely), and they considered it exemplary. Nevertheless, when the young Jószay went to Paris in 1972, not the avant-gardes made an impression of him, but the Tutanhamon exhibition in the Louvre. Since then he has concerned in the art representation of'time' and 'timeless'. He has been living and working in Miskolc since 1979. First of all he made of wood. He confesses about it, "Accidentally, I got of a considerable quantity and quality wood that I made freely anything what I liked. I stared how lightly this material could be formed, and how sweet-smelling and fine to the touch and by this time I have felt sense pleasure to deal with it for three decades. "It was in 1984, and thereafter he created beautiful head statues almost at the same time: Young Man, Woman Head, My Father. He creates all figural statues very intensely and sincerely, which is rare in the "high" art: Little girl with cap, Dance, Play, Victim, Legist. All of them can be characterized by different artfulness. For the sake of emphasizing of the mental essence, he often uses the torso. From the beginning of 1990s, his works become saturated with spiritualism increasingly. The Reviving is an example for this. The body reminds us of the beginning of the historical era, but the intelligence getting from the Creator is also expressed. The Traveller is immersed in his thoughts, and it can hardly be seen the anatomy of the human body exteriorly. As if the missing skull would have been covered by a cultic shroud. The using of this bandage-type had almost been typical of Jószay's works, in which the mysticism is not out of accordance: African, Longing, Statue of Ernő Kunt, dr. Nowadays, the artist has become one of the most authentic figures of the Hungarian sculpture and a very productive person. His works of art show the doubtful world concept of the present man on a very high artistic and aesthetic level. The Herman Ottó Museum congratulated the artist on his 60

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h birthday with an exhibition of his outstanding works, which are preserved in national and private collections of Hungary. Gertrud Goda