Köpöczi Rózsa: A grafikus Szőnyi – rézkarcok (PMMI – Szőnyi István Alapítvány, Szentendre – Zebegény, 2000)

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for him. This kind of technique bridled his senses but did not weaken his imagination. None of his paintings emanates the peace that his etchings do. He regarded working on the plate as a means of purification. During the incision objectivity can rise into substance, one can completely devote himself to "things", which are not merely objects, living beings, landscapes but enchanting worlds closed into themselves. Perhaps this is the point where we can find the most important link between Rembrandt and Szőnyi's art. Characteristically, neither artist liked painting or drawing still-lifes. They considered unworthy the wanton arrangement of objects according to human whim. They respected the props of everyday life much more than sacrified their mystical dignity. Before immersing in examining Szőnyi's etchings it is worth thinking over the present condition of serigraphy. In the last years of the 20

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h century what can we sav about this genre after experiencing and continuously partaking in the shocking revolution of multipliability, assisting at the agony of the "Gutenberg Galaxy"? At the time when there is a general spread of more and more improved presswork, copy and fax machines and computers, how should we regard woodcuts, engravings, litographs? Are the prints made by them identical with those made by modern technique? The definite answer is, no. Whether it is an etching, woodcut or litograph, each impression carries the touch of the original block or plate made by the artist himself. Laying and wiping paint, pressing are made by hand, so there are no two completely identical pictures. The state of the plate or block changes after each impression. The number of impressions is limited, which restricts multiplication, thus the result is an original - though not an individual - work of art. These sheets by all means represent a different quality than the more and more improved copies of our age, not to mention the pictures of "false reality" brought about by a computer. By the 20

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h century it became apparent that print-making has lost its earlier role of versatile medium, and retreated among the narrower walls of art. It has been simplified into one of the several means of expression. This method of leaving a mark trains each artist for asceticism but for the renunciation they are recompensed with the beauty of the material of the woodblock or copper plate, the direct sensuous relation with the matter, the dinamism and drama of black and white lines and patches, the infinite diversity of the ways of expression from naturalism to abstraction and the charm of individuality, which remains in spite of multipliability. All these things considered, let us examine ISTVÁN SZŐNYI's etchings. We begin introducing Szőnyi's etchings with the self-portraits because not only this was the design of his first plate but also he made a whole series of self-portraits at the beginning of his career. He represented himself in various roles, thus he tried to find his own way, the possibilities of authentic expression. The young artist must have been inspired by the fact that his chosen master, Rembrandt also often depicted his own face at the turning points of his life. His course can be followed all along with the help of his self-portraits. Szőnyi had the following inscription incised on the bottom of his first plate: "I Made It about Myself, Anno 1920, November, My First Etching. I Will Give It to Mv Friends as a Souvenir." The first self-portrait was followed bv several. In 1922 he depicted himself as Rembrandt, because the new example offered new roles for him. However, the series of self-portraits did not accompany Szőnyi along his career. The process stopped in 1928. Though he had one or two designs etched in the 1950s, neither their expressivity nor their technical solutions can reach the standard of the early pieces. 20. FARÖNKÖN ÜLŐ ÖREGEK 1935 Even the young Szőnyi could not avoid the heritage of the "Eights" or the "Activists". He was influenced by Kernstock's angular nudes and Béla Uitz' expressive nude compositions with classical arrangement and utilizing Renaissance lessons. His journeys to Vienna and Berlin in 1920 and 1921 also had an effect on his work. Especially Rembrandt's female figures clad in warm light, and the golden-brown ground and golden-green-leaved trees of the landscape-gardens of Hans von Marées made a deep impression on him. 23 The sheets made at the beginning of the 20s, Lovers Folded in Each Other's Arms, Bathers, The Myth of Love had had a storehouse of motifs he never applied later. The unclothed figures are whirling passionately though impersonally in front of a stylized landscape. Mythological beings, small angels, winged putti are hovering above the naked bodies, the tone is almost Baroque-like. It is worth comparing these etchings with the contemporary Béla Uitz or János Kmetty's graphic pieces of similar subject-matter; the likeness of the compositions is surprising. There are several study-like pieces representing seated or standing female figures with or without drapery, analysing technical diversity, which can be linked to the previously mentioned monumental compositions showing classical impact. Some of these pieces are outstanding like Dressing (1928), which was made at the beginning of the Zebegény period unfolding gradually in full light. His technique of etching was also changing parallel with his first experiments with tempera. He was seeking after more painterly and lyric solutions. After his moving to Zebegény he less often chose the subject of unclothed figures either against an imaginary landscape or in a real interior. His attention turned more and more towards the newly-discovered countryside, the Danube and the natural environs along the river. Settling in the village was an experience of elemental force for Szőnyi. Not only his private life but also his painting changed entirely. It is worth examining the alterations of the painter's relations to landscape from the few wellknown powerful works of the starting period of Nagybánya to the world of the large-scale, epochmarking paintings and etchings created in Zebegény. The conception of the earliest panel-pictures can obviously be linked to Nagybánya. Júlia Szabó simply relates Szőnyi's style of this period to the expressivity of the "Neos" and Lajos Tihanvi, considering the painter a prominent representative of mature expressive naturalistic landscape as early as 1918-19. The above statement is supported by the series of etchings the first pieces of which can be dated to 1921-22. These compositions may have been produced during the short but prolific time spent at the artists' colony of Kecskemét. Leafage of windtorn or straight trees towers above the low horizon of the landscape of the