Köpröczi Rózsa: A grafikus Szőnyi. Rajzok, vázlatok, tanulmányok (Pest Megyei Múzeumok Igazgatósága – Szőnyi István Alapítvány, Szentendre – Zebegény, 1996)

YEARS OF PREPARATION "The technique of using a pen forces us to reshape the topic to some extent, and demands a rather safe ability of drawing... the outlines of the well-observes object should be traced in one line." (SZŐNYI ISTVÁN: A RAJZ, P. 17. A KÉPZŐMŰVÉSZET ISKOLÁJA, KÉPZŐMŰVÉSZETI ALAP KIADÓVÁLLALATA, BP, 1976.) The earliest nude studies and compositional sketches are arranged in the first part of the book. Several of them had been produced at the Academy. Comparing them with the graphic art of the generation starting in the early 20s - that of Imre Nagy, Lajos Nándor Varga, Vilmos Aba Nóvák and István Szőnyi, the career of whom started at the Kecskemét Colony of Artists' as well as at the Faculty of Graphics led by Viktor Olgyai - we can discover some kind of a common language. "In this circle of friends a specific, analytic way of seeing was predominant - the formal proportions of human body were broken up. This way of seeing was undoubtedly influenced by Cubism, which had cut up objects with beams of light"* - writes Gyula László in conncection with Imre Nagy's graphic works. The robust, bold and expressive drawings of Béla Uitz, who was only a few years older than the abovementioned artists, might also have had an impact on them. In 1920-1921 they were drawing only, later they began to deal with sérigraphies. Szőnyi was the first of the artists to make etchings. The drawings were made with a fine tip pen, in Indian ink, on paper, while the etchings were made with an even finer tip etching needle, on plate. Their topic was the evergreen artistic problem; representing the human body, as well as the idyllic relationship between man and environs. Cézanne may have been their ideal, who was struggling heroically with the "Big Bathers" all his life. His canvas, which remained unfinished, could not be disregarded by those who began to deal with this problem. Szőnyi, together with his contemporaries from Derkovits to Kmetty all got over a period like this. Szőnyi himself gave some instructions on the essence of the method of pen-and-ink drawing in his recipe book published in 1941, entitled "The Study of Fine Arts", in the chapter on drawing. Szőnyi's beautiful nude studies drawn in ink seem to illustrate the thesis mentioned above. He was idling over some details with pleasure, he sometimes even took notes of his observations of animals and plants, on the very same leaf. In his compositions consisting of several figures we can feel the impact of the classical authors from museums. First of all the idyllic scenes of Hans von Marées could have served as patterns to be followed. "In these paintings besides their classical character the nudes are lively and sensuously beautiful, mythical and plastic"** - writes Júlia Szabó on Marées' neoclassicist compositions. Szőnyi could never get this kind of never-existing Arcadian atmosphere as a personal experience. Though the style of the leaves is slightly literary their unity is provided by the Baroque strength of composition. Light, which covers the naked bodies like flood, raising them into an almost metaphysical sphere, had become primary part of his works by then. Sharp lines made by pen had become dissolved by washing, thus making surfaces even richer and more painterly. These drawings accompany the significant paintings of his first period, and are inseparable from etching, a sérigraphie technique learned then. * Nagy Imre, Kétszáz rajz, Kriterion, Bukarest, 1973. p. X. The preface was written by Gyula László. * Szabó Júlia: A színvilág változásai Szőnyi tájképein, The catalogue of the Szőnyi István centenary memorial exhibition, 1994. p. 27.