Kaján Imre (szerk.): Zalai Múzeum 21. Emlékkötet Mindszenty József tiszteletére. Muzeológiai tanulmányok Zala megyéről (Zalaegerszeg, 2013)
Muzeológiai tanulmányok - Kostyál László: Pataky Andor (1891–1945) emlékezete
222 Kostyál László The memory of Andor Pataky (1891-1945) The name of the painter and sculptor Andor Pataky, who lived and worked in Tűrje between the two world wars and was popular at that time, has been largely forgotten nowadays. He died without descendants, his gravesite is not known, and his biographical data can be collected only from former news reports. He was bom on 21st June 1891 in Kaposvár, and between 1907 and 1911 he was a student at the School of Applied Arts in Budapest, where he completed his studies under the guidance of Géza Maróti, Antal Lórántffy, Lajos Mátrai and Imre Simay. Then he lived in Vienna and later in Italy for a short time, and then he moved to Budapest. He served as a soldier in World War I, and later he began teaching, while his aquarelles regularly appeared at the exhibitions of the National Salon. In 1924, together with his brother, he moved to a mansion, which they acquired as a family heirloom in Tűrje in Zala county, since then he tried to make ends meet from his art besides the rapidly decreasing income generated by the inherited estate. He established his own atelier, and he made an artist livelihood, being equally proficient in painting, sculpture and ceramic. In 1924 he had a solo exhibition in the Creation Artist House (Alkotás Művészház) in Budapest, and at the end of the year and in the following years he exhibited several times in Zalaegerszeg, but he debuted with a separate exhibition in Zalaszentgrót (1926) and Nagykanizsa (1931), which was reported in detail in the local press. On these occasions he mainly presented ceramic statues for the public, and aquarelles to a lesser extent. Besides the exhibitions he also became an active participant of the local public life. The nationwide movement, whose aim was to set up heroic monuments and had already begun to spread at the beginning of the World War I, received special impetus in Zala county from the mid-thirties, and Pataky also became involved in it. Partly the villages around Tűrje (Mihályfa 1934, Zalaistvánd 1935. Kisgörbő 1936, Óhíd 1936, Zalaszentgrót 1937, Gyepükaján ?, Vindomyaszőlős ?), and partly the settlements located west of Zalaegerszeg (Zalaboldogfa 1936, Hottó 1936, Kávás 1938, Zalalövő ?) turned sequentially to Pataky as customers. Apart from them, memorials formed by him were set up in Pacsa (1936) and also in Söjtör (1937), while a Patrona Hungáriáé statue was erected along the road bend leading to southwest from the county seat. In addition, he fulfilled several orders for building decoration sculptures (for example the crest of the County Hall and of the police palace in Zalaegerszeg) during this period. The truth is, that Pataky, due to his sculptural skills, was not fundamentally competent to create high quality statues and sculptures in public places, but there were artistically valuable works among his aquarelles, sculptures and ceramics. In spite of this — on the one hand, because of his undoubted talent and on the other hand, because of the fact that he had only one or two rival local stonemasons - he could become a popular creator of monuments as well. During World War II, he was the commander of the Polish reception camp in Zalaszentgrót-Zalabér, but he died before the war ended, supposedly he committed suicide due to financial problems. His art gives eloquent testimony to that the Hungarian art palette was much more colourful in the interwar period than what can be displayed even in the most detailed summaries. Translated by Lívia Simmer
