Somogyi, Győző - biographies - Forrás Gallery

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Life and career:

He was born on 28th July 1942 in Budapest. Finished the Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts and the Academy of Catholic Theology, where he made his PhD in Church History in 1968. He is a self-made artist. Earlier he made screen printings, but since 1980 he has rather been painting. Since 1986 he has lived and worked as a farmer in Salföld.

1956-1960: Secondary School of Fine Arts 1962-1968: Roman Catholic Academy of Theology From 1960 to 1964 he worked in Kossuth Press, where he studied modern printing technologies.
In 1967 he was consecrated as a priest, and in 1968 he made his PhD in Church History. Next to being a priest he did physical work at different working places.
In 1972 Markó György master printer taught him the technology of screen printing.
He visited Paris and Rome for further studies in 1972, also traveled in Romania, but his journey in Greece impressed him the most.
Since 1973 he has been an exhibiting artist, he has regularly displayed his graphic works and later his paintings on different Hungarian and foreign exhibitions. In 1975 he left the Church and became a free-lance fine artist. In the early 1980s he settled down in Salföld. He is a member of the Káli Basin Environment Protection Association, the Veszprém Artists Guild and the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
Since 1983 he has illustrated mainly books on war history, and has also had a significant career as a writer.
From the start of his career in 1973 to the end of the 70s he dealt with mainly graphics, while since the early 1980s he has almost exclusively painted, but some of his painting works were finished in the mid-70s.
He chooses the topic of his artworks from Hungarian history, religion and everyday life. As for his historic topics he is mainly interested in dramatic changes. His heroes of history are not at all similar to any earlier stereotypical illustration: his figures are grotesque with their magnified hands and faces. At the same time he approaches everything with scientific factuality and insists on being punctually descriptive about historic eras. From the field of religion, as the most archaic approach of life, he is mainly interested in myths and miracles. His source is the Bible and sometimes the apocrypha. He is deeply impressed by the figure of Jesus, and his life. As for the imagery, he is inspired by village churches' iconography. His way of artistic expression is rather individual with over-emphasized, grotesque forms and very vivid colors - red, yellow, blue. His gouache paintings are graphic-like with strong contours and homogeneous color patches, as the painter would fill in the frames of drawn contours with colors - proving that he does not fit in any painting style or artists group. His pictures are only partly filled with understandable content - their expressing nature is hidden in the unusual way of realization. In his first paintings the artist shows his amusement about the Balaton Uplands, he deals with his favorite historic topics and paints a whole series about his Greek experience. In those Greek pictures the landscapes are silent, faint in the noon sun and reflect permanency.
His iconostas, with the title "Magyar hősök arcképcsarnoka" (Portrays of Hungarian Heroes) was exhibited in the Hungarian Folklore Museum in 1996. The series consists of 100 portraits of legendary army leaders of Hungarian history, from Attila, the Hun to Maléter Pál. The series, which was made for the 1100th Anniversary of Settlement, also shows respect for the more million unknown soldiers, who defended Hungary throughout its stormy history. The artist took special care of the details: the uniforms, coats of arms, orders are carefully drawn and punctually descriptive about the given historic eras, as a result of former studies. The artists' brilliant colors and well-known decorative style are significant features of the little bit caricature-like, grotesque half-length portraits. With this series the artist aimed to show heroic idols, to wake and nurture national traditions and to remind of moral values of the past.

Awards:

Individual Exhibitions (selection):

Artworks in Public Collections:

First Hungarian Art and Artifact repository Foundation,Budapest
Herman Ottó Museum, Miskolc
Katona József Museum, Kecskemét
Laczkó Dezső Museum, Veszprém

Memberships:

Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts
Young Artists' Studio
Alliance of Hungarian Artists
Veszprém Artists Guild
Káli Basin Environment Protection Association