Why does a young man blessed with a talent for drawing and sculpture worthy of a creative artist become “merely” a restorer?
Early life factors strongly influence the development of personality, laying the foundations for a later way of thinking and outlook on life. It makes a difference whether one sees the light of day in a highly cultured, well-to-do family, as the privileged son of a balanced society, in an independently prospering country, or begins the path of awakening as the child of a multiply disadvantaged family struggling with the dramatic difficulties of a dark historical era, in a small country at the mercy of a great power.
The smallholding of Vilmos Osgyányi's farming ancestors was cut in two by the decisions of Trianon that impacted Hungary following the lost war. From the end of the Second World War, his father commuted from the family home in Hajdújárás – now permanently annexed to Yugoslavia – to work the land in Ásotthalom, and then, to escape the Serbian "harassment" affecting Hungarian inhabitants, fled with his wife across the permanently closed border into Hungary. Ásotthalom, notoriously the darkest, poorest corner of the farming world around Szeged – which “harboured” Sándor Rózsa and Pista Pipás, among others, as Átokháza – only received municipal status in 1950, one year before Vilmos was born. Osgyányi was born into this backward farm world, which, by now, has advanced to village, in 1951.
This family origin story sensitised him to the fates of those suffering from recent history, while the experience of decades-long deprivation accompanying the resettlement sharpened his social sensitivity. What does (or could) all this mean for a young man blessed/cursed with artistic abilities and desires in 1960s Hungary? The unbreachable command of unforgettable, deep roots. Instead of a difficult present, a strong emotional attachment to the bygone past. A sense of vulnerability. Loneliness. Modest desires.
His primary school art teacher, Árpád Szűcs, noticed his pupil's drawing skills, which were far above average. At that time, Vilmos wanted to be a cook or a forester; he considered both professions attainable and would not have aspired “higher” on his own. At last, the “forcefulness” of the teacher prevailed: Vilmos gained admission to Tömörkény István Ipari Szakközépiskola (Tömörkény István Industrial Vocational Secondary School) in Szeged, specialising in stone carving and stone sculpture, where he received a skilled worker's certificate alongside his secondary school certificate.
Standing out among his excellent specialist teachers was graphic artist Márta Kopasz, who planted in the hearts of her students interested in drawing and art history not only an unconditional love of art, but also a lifelong duty and responsibility: a talent received from God must be served with humility, not merely for our own sake, but for the benefit of our narrower and wider community. Alongside his outstanding talent, it was the command of this humility and responsibility that took Vilmos Osgyányi from Átokháza to the Academy.
After graduation, he completed his compulsory military service, then managed to find employment as a skilled stone carver and sculptor at the Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség Visegrádi Építésvezetőség (Visegrád Construction Directorate of the National Inspectorate of Historic Monuments). As a result of his excellent work, he was able to enrol under the scholarship of the Műemlékfelügyelőség (Monument Inspectorate) at the Magyar Képzőművészeti Főiskola (Hungarian College of Fine Arts), where, as a student of Ernő Szakál, he obtained a degree as a stone sculptor and restorer artist, and subsequently taught there as an assistant lecturer for a few years. As time went by, his master did not let go of his talented student's hand; during their joint works, he continued to teach and assist him in the first phase of his career as a restorer artist.
For a long time, the intellectual basis of monument restoration in Hungary was defined by the Venice Charter of 1964. According to the essence of the Charter, most original elements of an excavated building must be preserved. The values of the past must be presented dryly, rationally, in their fragmentary nature: this and that artefact was like this, it was made like this at such and such a time: look, this is what the past was like. Vilmos Osgyányi's early works created in the spirit of the Charter were characterised primarily by masterfully executed solutions inspired by the decorative elements and sculptural details to be renovated; one might think of the Matthias-era Renaissance stone carvings exhibited in Schallaburg, or the restoration of the Vöröstorony (Red Tower) in Sárospatak, carried out as a team.
His outstanding stone sculpting activity, performed with commitment and devotion to the values of the past, brought him more significant, complex commissions, through which he took on a significant role among the domestic innovators of the spirit created by the Charter. According to the new thinking, it is worth reviving the past, returning it to life and making it available for modern people to experience. This approach makes reconstruction, instead of mere restoration, the most preferred mode of presenting the built monuments of the past – with a serious dilemma, and consequently, real dangers. To what extent are we allowed – due to the limited nature of available verified data and real monuments – to rely on our imagination to intervene in inherited assets and build a new-old structure from them? It can easily happen that as result of such a reconstruction, the building created over the restored relics is well utilisable from a tourism and business perspective, yet, to a certain extent, falsifies the values of yore.
The dilemma must be resolved. Osgyányi worked for nearly ten years on the preparation of the stone structure reconstructions and installations of the Szent Péter- és Szent Pál-székesegyház (Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul) in Pécs. He restored the entire stone material collection of the Dómmúzeum (Cathedral Museum), which opened in 2004. His colleague, the excellent interior designer Pál Héjjas, designed the installation walls of the lapidary, into which Osgyányi had to build stones selected from thirteen hundred carvings according to various criteria. He alone installed the four large objects of the lapidary: the two crypt entrances, the Szent Kereszt-oltár (Altar of the Holy Cross), and the marble gate.
The initial church restoration works had been started decades earlier by Osgyányi's university master, Ernő Szakál. He discovered that a significant part of the cathedral's building stones bore Roman-era decorative carvings, but unfortunately – Szakál opined – these could not be presented, as the building elements were built into the relevant structure – the wall – in such a way that only one side was visible.
Osgyányi resolved the problem in a masterly fashion. He inserted metal plates between the stones of the gateway containing Roman carvings and connected them with a steel arch so that the structure would remain load-bearing, but could be walked around, thereby allowing visitors to view not only the main frontal aspect of the magnificent church gate, but also the Roman-era carvings revealing themselves on the back. His work was rewarded with a Munkácsy Prize in 2004.
His pioneering change of approach is apparent in the result of the work he performed and directed during the restoration of the Chapel of Füzér Castle. The severely damaged building structure of the chapel – the diverging, leaning walls, ready to collapse, and the significant gaps between them – did not allow for standard restoration solutions. Osgyányi solved the problem in a uniquely individual way. He preserved everything he could in its original state, but at the same time raised a “pseudo”-vault above the walls, thus restoring the building to function in the present age.
In his subsequent works too, he became an outstanding creator of his profession with uniquely individual, scientifically grounded, yet inspired artistic solutions. Standing out among his works performed in countless corners of the country are the stone carvings belonging to the building of the Zsolnay Museum in Pécs and the artistic restoration of the Statue of Vilmos Zsolnay, as well as the construction of the Renaissance loggia established in the first phase of the Siklós Castle and the reconstruction of the large inner courtyard windows.
The Reston Ltd., which he founded and manages, now prepares complete research and work plans, as in the touristic development of the western wing of the Esterházy Palace in Fertőd; it performs expert diagnostic examinations, as it did during the restoration of the façades of the headquarters and library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
He has been planning to retire for years, undertaking at most only expert tasks, but thanks to his genes, the parental pattern, and the example of his masters, even as a seventy-one-year-old pensioner, he is unable to put down the pencil, the chisel, and the designer's glasses. Beside his daily work, as the president of the Magyar Restaurátorok Egyesülete (Association of Hungarian Restorers), he fights for the broad social recognition of the significance of his profession; his goal is to establish a Chamber of Restorers. He is a member of the Biatorbágy Önkormányzat Értéktár (Depository Committee of the Biatorbágy Municipality), father of seven children, and a loving husband. Currently, as the expert restorer for the building complex of the former Ministry of Finance being rebuilt on Buda Castle Hill, he oversees restoration works so that the values of the past can be experienced in the present and the future.
[2022]