Novotny Tihamér szerk.: 10 + 1 éves a Szentendrei Grafikai Műhely (Pest Megyei Múzeumok Igazgatósága, Szentendre, 1991)

INTRODUCTION The Graphic Workshop of Szentendre which is suitable for experimenting within certain limits as well as for producing artistic sérigraphies has been functioning since 1980. The tenth anniversary should have been celebrated in 1990 but since it has not happened last year we intend to do it now. This sérigraphie panorama is an important fact ana „accessory" for art historians ana friends of art because in Szentendre there has not been a comprehensive show recently which would have pointed out the dominant as well as latent stylistic tendencies.Thus it has been impossible both for experts and artists connected with Szentendre to estimate the results of the last ten years, the artistic and intellectual treasury and the position of Szentendre art well-known in Hungary ana Europe. Serigraphy is in fact a genre of graphic art and thus is auite close to drawing which is, as Magdolna Supka says, „an intellectual attitude which intends to make the viewer think, the manual of the orthography of the arts, the basis of stylistic trenas, the basic element of the construction and interpretation of the goals ana structure of diverse trends." (free puotation). Is there any better chance to learn the secrets ana „recipes" of Szentenare art ana to estimate and judge them than an exhibition presenting a graphic material produced by local or affiliated artists in the framework of a second (but not secondary) activity? Hopefully, this show will provide numerous morals for the audience, ON THE WORKSHOP AND SILKSCREEN TECHNIQUE The Graphic Workshop of Szentendre was founded at the repuest of local artists with the moral and financial support of the Arts Fund, The Pest County Section of the Society of Hungarian artists, the town of Szentenare, the Pest Coutny Cultural Centre and Library and later the Directorate of Pest County Museums and has functioned, if not without troubles, continuously since. By the employment of a full-time typographer, Mihály Lipták, ana by the necessary eauipment ana materials it facilitates the production of sérigraphies. „Serigraphy is a version of silkscreen printing where the master pattern is made by an artist who prints it himself or supervises the work of the typographer who produces prints in restricted numbers. These copies signed by the artist are regarded as original prints." (puotation from the book referred to in the interview with Imre Kocsis) Thus the prints testify not merely the mastery of the artist but also that of the typographer. (There are, as always, exceptions from the above aefinition since in some cases certain works of elderly masters like Jenő Barcsay, Erzsébet Vaszkó, Dezső Korniss, János Pirk and Endre Bálint have been copied onto silk by the typographer himself who either made a hand copy or a photographical reproauction.) Apart from artistic activity the Workshop had wider cultural tasks as well. Two copies of each series have been given to the Arts Base of Pest County and this collection can be used for travelling shows" in less favoured settlements of our country or abroad. A basic rule concerning membership is that the artist shouia live in Szentendre or at least his oeuvre should be connected with the town.