Magyar Hírek, 1986 (39. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1986-08-18 / 16. szám
... I have kept the faith." PORTRAIT SKETCH OF JÓZSEF SOMOGYI, SCULPTOR “The Rector went out for a few minutes“—the porter of the Epreskert workshop-complex of the Academy of Fine Arts told me. and I started, crestfallen, towards the gate. I did not believe in those “few minutes”. Most likely the Rector, József Somogyi the sculptor slipped off to avoid the persisting journalist, who badgered him for weeks for a birthday radio interview. I was lucky, however, for as soon as I reached the street 1 saw his robust figure coming towards me carrying a bottle of red wine. I felt a bit ashamed for thinking he would not come back. Indeed, as a considerate host he wanted to offer something to me, and there was no percolator in the workshop. In any case, red wine suits the Master better, and also the birthday. But the number of his years do not seem to fit him: he is seventy. Unbelievable. Walking along the path meandering amongst old and beautiful trees we arrived at his studio. I had already been to the place a few years ago, since then—if that is possible—it has become even more cremmed. But we founk two chairs to sit down on even two glasses for the wine, and a spot on the corner of the desk for the tape-recorder. As befits a regular career-interview, I asked him first about his home village, the memories of childhood. The answer is not really simple, for Félszerfalva, where József Somogyi was bom, is on the map of Austria today and has been there since the end of the Great War. “I was five years old, when we left Félszerfalva. The irony of fate is that since then I have been to almost every country of Europe, but have never again seen the 'Tillage of my birth. One of my major debts is to pay a visit there.” “The regions, which I recollect from my childhood, are two of the most beautiful ones in the country: Klastrompuszta, near the Dobogókő, a world of wooded hills, and Ásványráró, a world of waters. Both were intact parts of nature in those days. I got to know the beasts of the forest around the Klastrompuszta home of my grandfather and not in the zoo. as the children do today. I experienced a similar miracle, when we moved to Ásványráró a few years later. The Danube breaks into countless branches in that region, I saw the birth and disappearance of islets, listened to the songs of fishermen, short I had a beautiful childhood, over which only my father’s early death cast a shadow.” Ásványráró is still the home of József Somogyi. Whenever he was some time off, he goes there from Budapest to rest and to enjoy the still undisturbed countryside. The broader environs of the place are also pregnant with memories, for he studied at the Benedictine College of Győr, and at the Calvinist College of Pápa just a bit further away. Raised by two denominations. “There was no religious intolerance in our family. My mother was Roman Catholic, my father a Calvinist. And my Transylvanian born grandfather was a member of the Greek Catholic Church. I am a Calvinist myself, but never experienced any disadvantage because of that in the Catholic College of Győr. I can speak only with the deepest respect and love about my Benedictine school masters even today. The reason why I feel that the Pápa College was more decisive in my life is that I had a wonderful arts master there: Sándor Tóth, a painter, who had just returned from Paris. I learnt much from him. It is a pity it took so long for Hungarian art to discover what an outstanding painter Sándor Tóth was. ” I interjected here recalling that József Somogyi mentioned in an earlier interview how he tried his hand at sculpture in his childhood, modelling a little zoo out of beeswax he obtained from his grandfather’s apiary. They were his first works. He has changed to other materials since, and he has also assembled a real zoo around his family home. “I am causing quite a bit of bother to my wife with this, for we have not only domestic animals, but also some wild beasts. For instance, a beechmarten. I love him because he is beautiful, because he is getting old beautifully, he does not show his age, and he is faithful. Once he left us, but the next day we found him again in his roomy compartment, which I built for him in the garden and furnished with everything that makes him feel good. Át least I hope he does. Well, such are my fancies. But I think life would be worth less without fancies. In fact, it is also a fancy that I take a lump of clay into my hands and I believe I could convey something else, something more with that, than that I can with words.” The amount of clay that József Somogyi has taken in his hands can truly be measured in tonnes. Unlike the majority of sculptors, he personally puts into place the heavy blocks of clay on the iron skeletons he also makes himself. He cannot bear anybody else around him even in the earliest stages of his work. He prefers to do even this navvy work on his own. “I need solitude when I work, therefore I mostly lock the door of the studio on myself. Some visitors, who do not know this habit of mine, knock on the door just when I’m working, and look around with barely disguised curiosity, when they are finally let in: where did I hide the naked model?” Although the modelling of sculpture expressing eternal human feelings, thus of beautiful nudes is part of the life and work of József Somogyi, his bestknown "pieces* refer to events in Hungarian history: Zrínyi, Dózsa, János Szántó Kovács, or the two latest, the memorial of the victims of the Second World War at Buda, in the park of the Congressional Centre, and the equestrain statue of Rákóczi. The latter was made to stand in front of the house,' where Ferenc Prince Rákóczi spent his last years in Rodosto in Turkey, but finally it was erected at Sárospatak. It turned out, that is, that only Kemal Atatürk was allowed an equestrian statue in Turkey. Thus, József Somogyi modelled a bust of the Prince for the memorial house on the shore of the Sea of Marmora. Besides monumental works, he finds much pleasure in modelling small statues as well. An exhibition has recently opened in the Káptalan Hall of Sopron of terracotta figures he made in recent years. These were productive years, also because he resigned from some time-consumig public offices after his heart attack. He is no longer a member of the Presidential Council or a Member of Parliament, or president of the Association of Artists. “I never yearned for positions, never wished to be a public figure. But when people or institutions honoured me with their confidence I tried to reciprocate that with the best of my ability. I went from meeting to meeting and tried to become thoroughly conversant with the fields entrusted to me. In the meantime my sculptures stood hereabandoned and half-baked. I worried every night that another day had passed and I had not worked. Things started all over again the next day. That this affected my health goes without saying. I was, however, happy to carry on with my duties as Rector of the Academy. Now, leaving—under the rules time as Rector will soon be up—I take farewell convinced that I am leaving behind a school, and not a disorganized institution. I will however, not give up teaching. I am going to stay with my class, thus my contact with young people and with the Academy will not break.” There is one honorary office József Somogyi has retained. He is the Lay Chairman of the Calvinist Synod. “I have looked after this job since my good friend, Dr Zoltán Sebők passed away. I feel that the situation of the Churches is far more complicated in our age than it was in my childhood but I should like to believe we have no need for opportunism. I meet many theologians, young ministers of the church, and I endeavour to embue them with the spirit that they should not provoke conflicts, at the same time they should have the courage to make theirs a living faith, living lives inspired by an inner harmony. That is how I live. I look to the clear commands of the Sciptures. They say books have their own fate. This is valid in respect of the Bible too even in the sense that one often opens it just to find an appropriate message. Let me give you an example. When we heard of the death of Gyula Illyés, in the first moments of shock my wife reached for the Bible. It opened at Jeremiah and inspired me to write deeper lines of sympathy to the widow of Gyula Illyés, than I could have thought of myself. Our conversation touched on many other subjects. His children and grandchildren, bronze-casting, enrolments at the Academy, his garden at Ásványráró. One question that did not leave me all the time is the choice of chapter and verse from the Bible József Somogyi would make to describe his own life. I put this to him, when I was leaving, and was a little nervous whether the answer would be what I expected. It was indeed, he spoke as a true Calvinist: “The words of Paul, the Apostle, in Timothy occupy my mind most often. They are also what I carved on the headstone of my father's tomb: T have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.' Faith in the widest very sense of the term. That includes also my own faith as an artist.” JUDIT CSERVENKA 31
