Károly Kismányoky

Károly Kismányoky (1943, Pécs – 2018, Pécs) was a founding member of the Pécs Workshop. His experimenting and questioning nature led him to deny the fixed, finalized form of artwork and to focus on the process rather than the result – on the living activity rather than on the lifeless product. Under the visual directions of Ferenc Lantos, he first realized enamel paintings in the enamel factory of Bonyhád as well as prints and studies for geometric compositions together with the other members of the group. The outdoor, industrial and public character of the enamel paintings enlarging the realm of his atelier, his interest gradually shifted to situation-based practices. He started experimenting outdoor, in the surrounding natural and urban environment keeping process and the unfolding of events as the focal point, instead of sheer creation and execution. His placement of basic geometric signs onto trees trunks, on the ground of sand quarries and gravel pits as soon as 1970 were in fact the first manifestations of Hungarian land art. In the conceptual period of the Pécs Workshop unfolding from 1973, Kismányoky engaged mostly with photography, outdoor action and performance, investigating the visual potentials of replacement, concealment, masking, burning and sinking. These notions consistently outlined his interest for transformation, and reinforced the serial character in the execution of his pieces. This led him to work with the moving image and animation, while he kept elaborating his ideas in smaller graphic works and documenting the transformation of his urban environment.