In an article about the secrets of his creative processes, Dezső Kosztolányi reported that he did not like to be watched while he was working. He said that his face became distorted, he made grimaces while he was writing, and imagined that it might be frightening for an outsider to see him leaning over the paper with a pen in hand, trying to portray the various characters, getting into the imagined soul of the characters he is trying to evoke, almost like an actor. This is how I imagine Győző Sárkány, an artist of an otherwise gentle soul, sitting and working in his studio in a disciplined manner, but deep in his soul struggling with the challenges of creation, trying to represent the essence of his subject instead of just drawing a face – and to do so, he struggles with the material, like the biblical Jacob with the angel, to fight for the Creator’s blessing.
What can an artist do if he is asked to make a portrait of someone? Back then, when the prestigious and venerable Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet was preparing to publish photographs in addition to the graphic illustrations that had dominated the zeitgeist, there was a transitional period when portraits of famous people were still shown as classic press illustrations. In these assignments, the invited artist, namely Győző Sárkány, could not choose models who were close to him in terms of their work, outlook and values; instead, he had to use his highest artistic invention to find, capture and present the character of the person in question, whatever their beliefs and life’s works were. Thus, in his portraits, he depicted writers and politicians such as Pál Békés, Péter Fábry, Ákos Kertész, Gábor Görgey, Géza Páskándi, Albert Wass, Magda Szabó, John Updike, János Kis, József Antall, and himself as a young artist.
As a true artist, he was never satisfied with conveying the shape and features of the face. He considered this accuracy to be only the basis. Rather, he was motivated by the soul behind the visible. Thus, his portraits are not only authentic portraits, but also expressions of the soul.
Gábor Szerényi graphic designer
