Köpöczi Rózsa: A grafikus Szőnyi – akvarellek és goauche-ok (PMMI, Szentendre – Zebegény, 1994)

Szőnyi anyaghoz való szenvedélyes viszonya, a festői technika kérdései (Technika)

SZŐNYI'S PASSION FOR MEDIA AND PICTORIAL TECHNIQUES TECHNIQUE Szőnyi had been passionately interested in chemistry ever since his youth. He retained his profound interests in the media all through his career. He maintained that being well-versed in techniques was of high importance for the painter, since lacking the know-how may produce a deficient artistic expression. To bridge the gap between the artist and his instruments he compiled a book published in 1941 under the title "The School of Art". He both edited it and wrote the chapters on "Drawing" and "Pictorial techniques." All the authors sought to give guidelines to acquiring knowledge in the media and techniques. In 1941 at the threshold of World War II. Szőnyi and his friends published a book in praise of good media and in order to spread reliable, comprehensive information on pictorial techniques. What urged this generation to treat the values of the past with such reverence? This attitude might be traced back to the Cèzanne-ian trend of revolt against Impressionism, when certain artists paid all efforts to recreate the order of the world which had fallen apart and to give back the old rank to the idea of permanence in an era of the crisis of values. Why did István Szőnyi prefer gouache so much, this specific media which had been replaced by tempera in painting by the 19th century, ever since the early 1930s? Perhaps because its velvety matt surfaces are close to the effect of the tempera, and it was just about these years that he chose to paint rather in egg tempera than in oil. This was the landmark of his new, Zebegény period, the brightest of his oeuvre. From the 1930s he produced several hundreds of sketches in gouache, a lot of which transcend the unfinished character of sketches becoming compositions of full value. 38