Prohászka László: Equestrian Statues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)
Üllői út housing estate (District X). There is some unaffected simplicity and light-hearted charm about this visibly young, awkwardly long-legged, foal as it is jumping around in unselfconscious joy. Although the figure of this frisky little animal does not represent a peak in the history of Hungarian art, its fresh, genuine cheerfulness makes it worthy of mention. (The inscription 1959, chiselled into the left- hand side of the pediment, refers to the date the statue was erected.) József Somogyi was a representative experimental artist of the “post-soc-real” period. His works born after the 1950s suggested a self-confident mastery of form as well as the intention to find new techniques of artistic expression. His Girl with Foal, erected in the Jubileum park on the slopes of Gellért Hill in 1965, is a composition representing a new way of looking at the relation between horse and master. The dual bronze figure is set on a low base. This positioning is an aspect of the “de-heroising” intention, which also characterises Somogyi’s monument to János Szántó Kovács erected the same year in the town of Hódmezővásárhely. Although the piece on Gellért Hill has no historical story to tell, an intimate physical proximity between sculpture and audience was deemed essential here. Before the girl is a little foal. The key to the composition is in the upright position of both figures. The apparently static presentation results in no clumsiness. One can almost feel the shy trembling in the awkwardly long legs of the animal, barely a few weeks old, suggesting its fear of falling after the third step it takes. The little girl in her erect position looks before her as if she is paying no attention to the horse. The way she moves her hand and wrist, however, reveals that the little foal may be out of sight, but it is definitely not out of mind. It is only at first sight that the piece looks strange and somewhat rigid. What it represents is not the pulsing dynamism of our weekday bustle, but a momentary quiet with its, apparent, security. Time stands still here, something which never lasts very long. Another modern piece, Zoltán Olcsai Kiss’s pyrogranite Don Quixote, was erected in 1970 in Rottenbiller park, District X, near Kőbánya’s new centre. Cervantes’ hero is 52
