Kókay Krisztina (Esztergom, 2005)

RÓMAI TÖREDÉK I. - ROMAN FRAGMENT I. • 2001

PAPÍR, TOLLRAJZ ■ PAPER, INK • 46X34 CM

JUDIT JÓRY

I.N.R.I.

CORPUS DOMINI

Krisztina Kókay's "figure", her personage and art, her figurative art, have arrived at an important junction. The depiction of vegetation, plants and gardens has always been remarkable, but man-made walls and towers as well as canopies of heaven also appear on the snow- white sheets. Lofty Castle, an Esztergom reminiscence, stands out from the series of drawings. The subtle Balassi portrait, the likeness of "the soldier of God" dying in Esztergom, merits a special mention. The face is meticulously executed, while the minutely detailed pelisse clasp and the ornamentally rich piece of damask evoke the era.

This "drawing" might inspire new thoughts and start new dialogues about the dilemma and importance of representation and re-representation. The vertical portrait of a man might be a counterpart of the horizontal perspective drawing of Esztergom. The personality of the face and the personality of the landscape side by side. And, of course, the column head, the Pink Gate, the black armada of letters on the Mantles and the colorful turquoise-streaked Bridge Abutments - these strange obelisks - all inquire the importance of the figurative.

The Face has again a special significance. The already familiar Portrait of a woman (pencil drawing), which reappeared at the Royal Palace in Gödöllő, and the tiny torsos, the weird and shy figures of Roman Fragments are also concerned with the problem of the figurative.

... And the Corpus Domini, the Body of the Lord, the most important symbol of Christianity. The cross as the tree of life is completed with the motifs of the new Paradise and Heavenly Jerusalem. The T-shape of the cross appears in the cross-shaped ground plans of churches and in connection with guilds, orders of knighthood, coats of arms, flags.

Kókay's Corpus is executed in an unusual way. It is almost standing. With inviting, calling, open arms... (It could be said not at all incidentally that on the early traditional Italian representations - around 1100 - the "body's" positioning is "hieratic", sacred, triumphant, rigid and "ornamental". The famous Sarzana crucifix, in the cathedral, Master Guielmo's panel painting represents that "position" of triumph in a masterly way. The crucifixes of Giunta Pisano and the Berlingieri family are also similar in this respect. Contrary to the painful, fallen, writhing figures of the Baroque, even Piero della Francesca's dead and resurrected Christs are all victorious and living.)