Biography

István Szőnyi was born under the name István Schmidt in 1894 in Újpest. His father, a few years later, changed the family name to Szőnyi. He began his studies next to Károly Ferenczy, and then, after the war, he was following with István Réti. In 1921 September he had great success with his first collective exhibition which was organized in the Ernst Museum. He became the member of the Szinyei Society and he was awarded by the Grant Prize. In January he arranged his second exhibition in the Ernst Museum, which was a great success again.
The modern Hungarian painter is one of the most prominent masters and had a significant role in the upswing of the Hungarian graphic tradition. Is one of his main eras (1920 – 1936) he produced nearly 200 graphics and he exhibited in several graphical exhibitions. In 1922 he painted firstly in Zebegény, a small village near Budapest. In the same year he went to Germany and Italy to study and he had taken part on the Biennial of Venezia. At the end of the year he appeared in the “Műcsarnok” nude exhibition, where he won the Youth Prize, and later, the painting got to the Museum of Fine Art. In 1935 the Fränkel Salon ordered an exhibition for him.
From this year Szőnyi was beginning to teach at the “Free School of Downtown”. In 1928 he received the Hungarian Rome State scholarship, although his colleges were spending two years in abroad, he returned home after four months. In the thirties he became the member of the Gresham circle and in 1937 he started to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts. In the same year he was commissioned to create the town of Palatine Church frescoes in Győr city.