Medgyessy-Kovács Gyula (1999)
István Sinkó Shakespeare: The merchant of Venice "But music for the the time cloth change his nature. The man that hath no music in himself Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds Is fit for ireasous, stratagems, and spoils,.... Marie the music.” (Act V Scene I.) Gyula Medgyessy-Kovacs does not only listen to music, but also minds and even studies it. His relationship with music, especially with jazz, is very strongly expressed. There is expressing power in his shapes playing music on the canvas, real rythms become colors from his paintbrush. Looking at the spectacle that is most lively in his music paintings, the vision of a painter using intensive range of colors, expressing a bit grotesque but strictly-arranged irony, can be seen. His college master's, Lajos Svaby's principles of building up the pictures can undoubtedly be noticed seeing his lively, half close-up figures. However, Medgyessy-Kovacs is still a more dramatic character than his master. We could rather find the French Rouault's method, moving large powers in colors and using the contours as their shackles, in his artistic world that shows drama and a stage: since the musical interpretation, the performance is both drama and a stage at the same time. Considerably the expressivity in George Grosz's urban comedies is not far from Medgyessy-Kovacs, either. However, his independent, sovereign works can be seen in this publcation. A young master introduces himself to us, who undertakes the more difficult way after a lot of struggling in his homeland, and looks for new tasks and challenges at the age of 36. His becoming most immersed in profession, and his everlasting dissatisfaction of research led him to a seemingly faraway world: the paintings of Giovanni Bellini, the great personality in the Renaissance in Venice. Although Medgyessy is not shamed of appreciating the master, who uses composition in perfect safety, he still makes his Madonnas and Pietas timely and bravely forms them according to his style. He hopes that knowing Bellini, the Renaissance, and the confab in pictures will have some effect when painting his beloved and chosen themes, musicians, town demons and parties for nouveaux riches crowded by masquerades. That is a most exciting attempt and not only his spectators but also the ones enjoying and listening to his music are looking forward to his new, sounding and visible works. Until then we are listening to music and looking at the music in the pictures. Look at the music! About the paintings made by Gyula Medgyessy-Kovacs Ervin Toth (historian of art): Whose portraits are merciless depictions of the soul (extract) The painter who is so familiar also with music, is capable of expressing the athmosphere he feels in an individual way. in the language of colors as well. It is exactly the feeling that makes him able to get close to the spectacle. We can say that his portraits are merciless deipictions of the soul, his paintings seem to be like psychoanalysis on the canvas. He mostly paints directly from hte tubes, uses neither a paintbrush, nor a maulstick. Only with the fingers, the palm or a rag does he form the shapes. He raise the suggestive power of his works in this way too. This method, which is similar to the stereoscopism of sculpture makes his lines so energetic. The colors of the background are sometimes so thinned, that the paint's flowing out opens up new possibilities to get playfully decorative. His nudes that are made also anatomically well, are beaming with eroticism imbued with a dry sense of humour. Beside his raised colorits, he is fond of using black colors, mainly as a background of his musician portraits. He can identify himself with the features of the material. With his own words: "I can nearly feel the smell of the canvas and the paint during work/' Karoty Binder Composer, pianist Teacher of music composition and piano at Liszt Ferenc College of Music There are two ways of creating music: improvising and composing it. Improvisation and composition make an apparent counterpair, but their elements cannot exsist without each other. Medgyesy- Kovacs's art is fostered by two fields: the fine arts and music... The more we get to know the relationship between the elements of an art and the ones of other arts, the closer we can get to a special kind of art.'' (Vaszilij Kandinszkij) Medgyessy's piano improvisations get their final forms as compositions in his pictures. Improvisation is a ramble, but the Work takes your hand and leads you somewhere.., The '' wellarranged" beaming of the spirit. Medgyessy-Kovacs's artistic world also proves my friend's, Ferenc Lantos's thought: "In the deep of the human soul each form has a sound and can be seen as well. A sounding can be heard and seen at the same time, because it both sounds and appears visible in the soul. Deep inside,,. We are looking for our own place.. If we could get closer to the entirety, there is spectacle and sounding both inside and outside us,,," Olaj, vászon /Oil on canvas Jazz III.