Kákóczki András - Vámosi Katalin: Lenkey Zoltán 1936-1983 (Miskolc, 2014)
Summary
Summary Despite the short time of his working life, which spanned almost a quarter of a century, the works of the graphic artist Zoltán Lenkey (Miskolc, 1936 - Miskolc, 1983) were characterized by value-adding and intensive artistic activities. Besides the graphic material also pastels and oil paintings can be found in large numbers in his significant oeuvre, whose most accentuated part is represented by the etchings. These prints are evidence of his profound knowledge of materials and accurate elaboration. Among his etchings there are many illustrations, of which the earliest pieces were made for the poems of Poe, Baudlaire, Verlaine and Apollinaire just during his college years. His diploma piece of 1962 is also linked with the genre of illustration: precisely with the poems of Attila lózsef. He drew his later works in a croquis style with the use of drawing ink and felt-tip pens. As a quick responding on written texts or as a selected piece from his graphic works they were attachments to poems and writings. The following milestones in his career are marked by his expressive drawings and in his final years he produced an increasing number of oil paintings and pastels. The selective, finely tuned colours of his paintings vocalize besides the constant or hidden range of the drama also lyrical sounds. His lifework is not completed due to his premature death, but it is not a chapter of experiments and studies. As a pensive person he drew or painted his well-considered and mature compositions - here and there with the help of peculiarly modified, individualized technical procedures - on copper plates, canvas and paper. He wasn't fettered by the constancy of the evolved patterns and his achieved results: his interest took a direction of new modes of expression and new opportunities as well the fascination towards painting techniques. In his graphics and pastels the line plays a determinant role, which is amplified and supplemented by the spot-like effects and the usage of similar colours in his pictures. His lines and spots are expressive and breathe subjectivity and intuition. Despite this, they have always been serving the content, the expression. In addition to this expressive dynamics, the so created pictures sometimes remind of the visionary world of Surrealism. The Zoltán Lenkey’s starting - his access to the studio apartment of the colony of artists in Miskolc in 1962 - coincided with the most active period of the “Miskolci Grafikai Műhely”. In this period, many artists - Kálmán Csohány, Károly Reich, János Kass, Pál Barczi Gábor Pásztor, Líviusz Gyulai, Ferenc Czinke, Gábor Gacs, Csaba Rékassy, János Pető - spent much time in the colony of artists. Some of them even settled down in the city. The intellectual effervescence as well as the city’s financial and moral support attracted the artists to this place. Graphic equipment beyond the Academy of Fine Arts (etching press, lithography machine) was only working in Miskolc, which also had national attractiveness. During that time Miskolc was considered the graphic stronghold ot the countryside, which is due to the start of the Graphic Biennial and the organizing of the “Téli Tárlatok" as well as their professional recognition. In this fertile, inspiring milieu Zoltán Lenkey collaborated with his artist friends Béla Kondor, Csaba Ifékassy, Margit Ágotha, with whom he had established a very close friendship already during his college years. His work was supported by Kálmán Csohány and Gyula Feledy, with whom he also was good friends. As recognition of his work he already received gratification during the II. Miskolc National Biennial of Graphics, which was held in 1963. It was followed by the Derkovits scholarship between 1964 and 1967. T en years later, two genuine prizes expressed appreciation of his work: the Munkácsy prize and the grand prize of the VII. National Biennial of Graphics. H is oeuvre rightly takes an important position in the Hungarian Graphics and the fine arts of Miskolc during the period between 1962 and 1983. 31
