Sz. Kürti Katalin: Vezető a debreceni Medgyessy Ferenc Emlékmúzeum Medgyessy Ferenc (1881-1958) életmű-kiállításához (Debrecen, 2006) (Debrecen, 1978)

Katalin Sz. Kürti, The Life and Art of Ferenc Medgyessy Guide to the Lifework Exhibition at Ferenc Medgyessy Memorial Museum(Summary) MEDGYESSY, Ferenc (Debrecen, January 10, 1881 - Budapest, July 20, 1958): a native of the city of Debrecen, one of the most outstanding sculptors of Hungary Between 1899 and 1905, Medgyessy studied medicine at the Orvostudományi Egyetem [Medical University] in Budapest. From 1905 through 1907, he was a student of Colarossi at the Academie Julian in Paris, went to the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere and the Academie de Beaux-Arts. His masters were: J.P. Laurens and J.C. Chaplain. In 1909-1910, he went on study trips to Paris and Florence. As of 1911, up until his death, he was a resident of the artists' colony at Százados út in Budapest. He participated in the Great War, and he even prepared military memorials commemorating the event. Between 1910 and 1914, he was a member of the Művészház [verbatim: artists' residence] in Budapest, while from 1924 to 1927, he had the same status in the Debreceni Művészház. He was a founding member of Képzőművészek Új Társasága [New Society of Artists in Fine Arts] and of the Ady Society in Debrecen. A sample of the numerous prizes and awards he received is as follows: 1912: Művészház díja [Artists'Residence Prize]; 1931: Szinyei jutalom-díj [Sziny

ei Award]; 1934: Gregussdij [Greguss Award]; 1935: Gold Medal at the Brussels World Exhibition; 1937: Grand Prix at the Paris World Exhibition; 1948 and 1957: Kossuth-díj [Kossuth Prize]; 1955: Kiváló Művész [Excellent Artist]. In 1910, Medgyessy returned to Hungary to start working according to a pre-set schedule. He adhered to the simplicity and monumentality of ancient eastern arts, including Etruscan and archaic Greek art. This is what he regarded to be his aesthetic norms. His stone sculptures display monumentality, simplicity, a rock like quality, and a way of composing that presupposes one view, e.g., Kövér gondolkodó [Obese Thinker] or Pihenő lányka [Young Girl Resting]. A large percentage of his pieces produced at the beginning of the 1910s featured an appraisal of the female body, and all of them were made in the spirit of antiquity. One of his chief subject matters was the representation of people at work and the work itself. His Súroló nő [Scrubbing Woman], created in 1913, also conveyed a degree of social criticism. While he introduced novel approaches in the field of memorial sculpture, he was also a pioneer in representing equestrian compositions. His Kis lovas [Small Horseman] dates from 1915 and its 1922 version meant a break from the Neo-Baroque perspective. What he actually managed to do was to implement a pure plastic art related expression in which the crucial aspect was taken up by the relationship between two bodies. The highest achievement of his oeuvre is certainly manifested in the group of sculptures situated in front of Déri Múzeum in Debrecen (1930). These four allegorical statues (called Néprajz [Ethnography], Művészet [Art], Tudomány [Science], Régészet [Archeology]) are monumental for the reasons of their size, equilibrium, quiet dignity and solemnity as well as for the fact that they are full of life. In this case, the lyric quality is paralleled with substantiality and the sensual beauty is matched off with high quality content and symbolic force. The four individual figures constitute a unity through their rhythm, substance, 53