Lóska Lajos szerk.: Művészettörténeti tanulmányok Pest megyéből (Studia Comitatensia 20. Szentendre, 1990)

Szentendre képzőművészete 1945–1985 - Kovács Gyula: Szentendrei szobrászok

Gyula Kovács: SZENTENDRE SCULPTORS The unilateral image of Szentendre changed when in 1969 five sculptors — Tamás Asszonyi, Erika Ligeti, Andreas Papachristos, László Rajki and Péter Rózsa moved in to the newly built studios of the New Artists' Colony. Together with Róbert Csikszentmihályi who had been working here earlier, and the newcomers — Ádám Farkas, György Holdas, Gábor Matyófalvi and Zoltán Szentirmai — there are eleven sculptors in town though this does not create a stylistic uniformity or a specific Szentendre character which is perhaps due to to the lack of a local audience. The only joint venture was a moveable exhibition titled "Medals from Szentendre" in the 1970s featuring the different aspects of the art of Tamás Asszonyi, Erika Ligeti and Róbert Csikszentmihályi. The author then analyzes the individual oeuvres. Péter Rózsa is a specialist of political monuments producing powerful statues and reliefs in Geometrical Abstract style which render his belief in the triumph of the ideals working class movement. László Rajki bases his statues on the meaning vested in the medium — stone, wood, bronze, lead and other metals. Most of his pieces are figurai compositions or portraits. Tamás Asszonyi's ideal is a Hellenistic space that can reflect the subtle pulsation of structural forms and strives for the spiritualization of his medium both in his medals and statues that are mostly made of bronze. Erika Ligeti — though her statues are fully accomplished renderings of their themes — finds her own terrain in small sculpture and medals in which she often uses grotesque elements and natural forms like pebbles, seeds and fruits as symbols of the interaction between natural and human order. György Holdas is a self-made sculptor who received no institutional training but studied sculptural anatomy with Vilmos Szamosi Soós. He has exceptional technical skills which can, in a way, soften marble and he matches them with an ironical approach to the frailties of the human character. Gábor Matyófalvi is a similarly gifted autodidact who was at first inspired by the respect for the medium and noble and clear forms represented by Henry Moore and now is also engaged in graphic art and in forming series of narrative reliefs. Viktor Lois produces thematic mobiles constructed of objects collected from the garbage with a definitely ironical and bizarre tone. Adam Farkas, the winner of a competition for a statue welcoming visitors to Szentendre was a student of L'Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris and his first figurai compositions of marble, limestone and andezité emanated the tranquillity of natural forms. His „Welcome" according to the author is less successful because of its medium. When he follows the inspiration of nature his representations are powerful indeed. Andreas Papachristos who has kept his Greek accent even after 40 years in Hungary carves his statues after small preliminary sketches directly into the final medium, let that be stone or wood. In his female torsos sensuality is merged with and toned down by clear forms. Zoltán Szentirmai is chiefly concerned with professional skills, reminiscences of art history and modernity — his "Gothic" is an airplane fallen into the Gothic spire, a Crucifix of our age. Though he occasionally experiments with pop-art his attempts to formulate his message by more traditional instruments seem more successful. Róbert Csikszentmihályi in the last ten years based his statues on the form of the prism which is turning into a cylinder proceeding upward thus forming a kind of pedestal for the meaningful part "flowering" at the top. His "Music" is a rendering of Man's ancient thirst for purity and beauty. Both his reliefs in the Patrona Hungáriáé Chapel of St. Peter's in Rome and his small sculptures and medals made of diverse materials convey a kind of moral attitude which never yields to the temptation of pure aestheticism. Hungarian sculptors, and Szentendre sculptors among them, are neither satisfied with Abstract opportunities inherent in their medium nor with the specificity idealized the bourgeois art establishment. They strive to express the essence of humanity, authenticity instead of yielding to changes in fashion or a cult of skills which is perhaps the reason for their reserved attitude towards Modernism altogether.